By Moonlight
by StillEvolving
Summary: [Everyone and their brother does this kind of fic, so I figured I should throw my hat into the ring. Not part of the "Through Windows" series.] When Anna's best friend, Olaf, loses part of his livestock under the light of the full moon, events begin to spiral out of control for Anna and she witnesses something she was never meant to see. [non-related Elsanna AU]
1. Prologue

A/N: Started out as an experimental side project in an attempt to see if I could make my readers hate me a little. Completed. Will post as I clean it up, I guess.

Disclaimer: Frozen characters are (c) disney corp

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Day was breaking. With the first scorching rays of sunlight, Olaf finally knew he could take a breath. Slumping back into his rocker, the white-knuckle grip he held on his rifle began to relax, and he slowly lowered the gun into his lap, eyes slipping closed. It had been a terrible night. The noise had ended some time ago, but until he could see the world without the aid of a flashlight, he couldn't bring himself to budge. He took another deep breath as he recounted the events that had shaken him to his very core.

The rancher had been awoken at four in the damned morning to the most horrid screeches he had ever heard coming from his cattle out in the field. _"Like banshees," _he thought with a shudder. The man had been put into such a state of fright that he'd jumped out of bed and stormed onto the front porch in his underwear. He had hoped to see the cause of the commotion under the light of the moon, but all he could make out in the distance were his cattle going absolutely, stark-raving **mad**. Bucking, squealing, kicking, spinning; utterly frenzied.

Then he'd heard it. The howl. Not the natural call of the coyotes that inhabited the areas. It was deeper, colder. _"__**Un**__natural." _The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he spun on his heel, racing inside and staggering on unsteady feet to grab his firearm. As he gulped for air, he ran a shaky hand through his scruffy, dark chocolate hair, and tried to decide what to do next.

"Call Anna," he mumbled to himself, then repeated the statement a few times as he rushed for his cellphone. He swept through his contacts at record speed, and dialed his best friend. While it rang, he checked to make sure the rifle was loaded, and flipped the safety off.

"Hnn.. h'lo?"

"Anna! Finally!" he tried to keep his voice quiet, watching the front door of his home with trepidation rolling off of him in waves, "You've got to get over here, right now."

That had apparently gotten his friends attention, "Whoa, whoa. Slow down. What's up?"

Olaf could hear the sound of rustling cloth, and the faint click of Anna turning on the lamp on her nightstand, "There's something out there. With the cattle." The young woman on the other end heard her closest pal gasp. There was a beat of silence before he whispered, "Listen."

Anna strained to hear what he was hearing. After another second of quiet, there was a baying, an animal cry that instantly sent goosebumps pebbling over her arms and legs. The sound had actually caused her to jump and pull the phone back slightly from her ear, eyes of aqua bugging. She waited until she heard Olaf again to hold the phone back up.

"Did you hear it? Please, please, Anna, don't leave me alone here," he sounded on the verge of tears.

"**Okay**, Olaf, just let me get my stock put away in the barn, and I'll be there. Have a cup of coffee and wait on the deck. You got your-" Much as she wanted to fly out to Olaf's, she couldn't risk whatever was causing such a ruckus at his place, taking her livestock as well.

"**Yes**, now **please**, just hurry."

With a sigh, the redhead rubbed tiredly at her eyes, "Yeah. An hour tops. Just sit tight." She hung up before her buddy could beg further.

So Olaf had sat. Tightly. In the chair on his porch, for the last hour, casting his hollow stare out over his field.

When he didn't respond to Anna pulling her noisy truck into his drive, she wrote it off as him being spooked. However, when she parked, got out, and approached him with still no greeting forthcoming, she turned and looked to where he was staring.

The survivors of the attack were much closer to the fence nearest to the house now.

The survivors.

Out in the distance, she saw the maimed and mangled corpses of several of Olaf's cattle. The fine hairs along her arms and neck bristled. Something about this whole thing was just wrong. She could feel it.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright to disney

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Chapter I: "They're creepy..."

"New neighbors?"

"Right. Moved into the old Bjorgman residence north o' here."

Anna and Olaf shared a glance between themselves. It had taken some time to shake Olaf out of his state of shock, but once he was stable, he relayed the events of the night previous to his companion. Anna put in a call with the local police; they sent Officer Oaken to take a statement.

As it turned out, this wasn't the first incident with local livestock. A month ago, Westleton, a few miles further north on the road past the Bjorgman place, lost ten heads of sheep, reporting similarly eerie sounds, and his stock going utterly insane in the middle of the night. "Weasleton" (as he was called behind his back) had been quick to throw an accusation at the new residents, stating that it must have been the large dog they kept. After all, he'd lost his sheep only days after the family moved in, they were "weird", and the canine was a "beast of an animal" that had the nerve to growl at him. The young woman had to roll her eyes at that; what dog in their right mind **wouldn't** threaten Westleton?

This was the first Anna or Olaf had heard of it. Had heard of the new neighbors, in fact.

"So, you haven't met them, haven't seen or heard anything suspicious?"

"No," the girl's tone was curt, "So, what? Westleton lost ten sheep, and your department didn't feel the need to inform the rest of us?"

"Ah," Oaken stammered, "No, miss. Ya see, it was a one time occurrence, and with no repeat incidents and no substantial evidence pointing toward the culprit, we felt there was really nothing to tell. Thought it was a fluke."

The redhead sucked her teeth, irked. "Right. Well, now there is. You should probably post a bulletin or whatever it is you do."

The hulk of a man swallowed, nodding stiffly as he stood from his chair at the kitchen table, "Of course, I'll be sure to do that, right away." He was just too uncomfortable to continue his line of questioning.

_"Fuck it,"_ he told himself, _"This girl is scaring the piss out of me."_

Olaf stood to see the officer out while Anna took a deep breath to calm her temper.

"_Settle down. This isn't like you." _Something about this whole situation had her on edge. She couldn't put her finger on why, but every part of the primitive rear of her brain was screaming "danger!" It was making her hostile. It felt similar to the first time she'd nearly stepped on a snake while out with her herd. Only this was persistent; there was no breath of relief to sigh as she stepped away from the threat. She didn't even know what the threat **was**.

When Olaf returned from showing Oaken to the door, Anna declared that they were going into town because, she "needed fuckin' ammo," as she put it.

By the time they reached civilization in the redheads junker of a truck, Olaf convinced her to let him go and get a drink from the bar across the street from the general store while she got "her fuckin' ammo". That left Anna standing in line with a pack of batteries and can of coffee at the checkout by her lonesome self.

The person in front of her moved away, and she stepped up to the register, setting the goods on the counter, "Six boxes of .270, please."

As the cashier bobbed his head and stepped into the storage room behind him, a long, low whistle behind Anna caught her attention, "That's a lot of bullets."

The girl turned to look over her shoulder, eyeing the man behind her. Friendly brown eyes, scruffy blond hair, broad shoulders. He was cute. If she wasn't in such an agitated state, she might have tried to flirt with him. Instead, she offered a droll, "Yep," as she turned to face the register again.

The man cleared his throat awkwardly, "What's uh-" **ahem**, "What's it for?"

"Coyotes, or something, killed a couple of my friend's herd," Anna glanced back at him again.

His smile faltered just slightly, a bare twitch, but she noticed, "Or something, huh? Like what?"

The redhead twisted to more fully face the man, "Um, animals? Duh. What else would I mean?" Now, why in the Hell had she asked that? What did that even mean? _"And what is taking that cashier so damn long!?"_

"Oh, uh-"

"Kristoff." A third voice interrupted their exchange. Both snapped their attention to the source, and Anna felt her breath hitch in her throat. It nearly came out as an audible hiccup.

The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, goosebumps breaking out over her arms. The woman standing off to the side was drop-dead gorgeous, and terrifically frightening. A shudder raced down Anna's spine as she stared at the cold, stoic features and blue (_"Blue, blue, very blue."_) eyes that briefly observed her before flicking back to the man.

"What are you doing?" Her tone was soft, but brokered no excuses. Anna felt herself tense, gaze bouncing from... Kristopher? (_"Was that what she called him?"_) to the woman.

"Aw, nothin', Els. Just chatting up the neighbors." His tone was sheepish as his own stare dropped to the floor, scratching at the back of his head.

There was a pause while the bomb-shell took a calming breath, lifting a hand to brush her platinum blonde braid forward over her shoulder, "Neighbors, hm?"

"Yeah, I heard she lives south on the highway from us." He gestured casually with his thumb toward Anna.

Anna shot the man an incredulous look. Where had he heard that? Her gaze fell back on the woman when she realized she was being looked upon much more studiously than before. Something in the blonde's eyes was making her feel distinctly perturbed.

"I see," there was a faint flicker of a tug at the corner of her lips as she crossed her arms over her chest, holding her elbows, posture elegant. Annas eyes of aqua were pinned by those oceanic pools, "Perhaps we'll have you for lunch some time."

Anna couldn't stop her oculars from bugging when she felt herself flush from her shoulders to her hairline.

Then, with a polite nod, the woman turned to the man again, seemingly ignoring the implications of her statement, "We should go."

He nodded jerkily, turning toward the front entrance with a clumsy wave back at the redhead, "It was nice meeting you." The woman didn't spare Anna a final glance as she walked out after him.

_"I hate to say it," _Anna considered numbly, _"But maybe Westleton was right. Those guys were **super** creepy."_


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: This update is coming a little early, but just because I have the whole thing written, doesn't mean I'm going to dump it all at once. Next chapter will come tomorrow morning. It wouldn't be an exercise in torture methods if I didn't torture you guys, right? Right.

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright to disney corporation and they'll use a time machine to angrily deflower my bum with fistfulls of money if they feel like I've stolen this from them somehow

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Chapter II: "And they're kooky..."

In spite of paranoia's grip on Anna in the wake of the events at Olaf's place, as weeks passed, she found herself beginning to simmer and calm. When she first realized this, she told herself not to grow complacent, but as the end of the fourth week neared, she found it harder to resist letting the issue go. Her instincts were still nagging her from the back of her brain. Even as she finally let herself relax, she slept with her rifle propped up against her nightstand.

The redhead had two full days without a sense of dread before her hackles were raised all over again with the delivery of an invitation in her mailbox. To **lunch**. At the Bjorgman residence. It probably wouldn't have troubled her nearly as much if it hadn't actually been addressed to her by name, which she hadn't given them. Or if it hadn't mentioned that Olaf was invited as well. Whom they hadn't met.

In spite of her uneasy sense over the entire thing ("I mean, who actually sends a formal invitation, like... through the **mail**, for lunch?"), Olaf told her he saw little harm in getting to know the new neighbors. It ended up taking some effort for Olaf to actually get her into the truck and headed down the road however, when Sunday afternoon came around.

The ride was Anna's last chance to dispute joining "those creepy people" for lunch, so she argued it out with the man, "You didn't meet them, okay? They were weird."

"You keep saying that, but from what you've told me, they sound nice."

"Oh, come on! They know my name, but I didn't give it to them!"

"So what? They've lived here for a while now, and you know how gossip gets around in town."

"Fine! You'll see when we get there. They're **creepy**."

The girl's complaints lasted until they were pulling into the long dirt and gravel driveway of the old Bjorgman place. It was a nice enough house, though the layout was a bit odd; spacious square footage in the shape of an 'L', forming a sort of courtyard in the back. The windows were lined with flower boxes, and the lawn was utterly immaculate.

Anna's friend let out a whistle, "Nice digs! I thought the place was run down?"

The redhead turned the key into the 'off' position and pulled it from the slot, leaning back in her seat as aqua oculars scanned the pristine home. "It was." In the moment of quiet that followed, she found herself wondering, _"How could they have turned it around so quickly?"_

Olaf was the first to slip out of the truck, grabbing his straw hat from the seat next to him and slapping it on over dark scruffy locks as he stepped into the sunlight. He slammed the door shut to get Anna's attention, coughed into his fist, sniffled, and scratched his nose, shuffling his boots in the dirt.

_"Pft. Impatient git."_

She joined him a few seconds later, and with a deep breath, and deeper sense of trepidation, the duo began to walk up the rest of the drive toward the front door. It was a growl to their left, by the corner of the house that caused them to stop in their tracks, gazes swinging wildly to locate the source.

Olaf gave an uncomfortable gasp at the sight of the beast standing some five or six meters away, and Anna turned to face it more fully, brow furrowing.

"Holy **shit**, that's a big dog," the man breathed as he stepped slightly behind her. Big was an inadequate word. The dog, if it could even be called that, was tall, nearly a meter high at the shoulders with long legs, wide bony paws, and erect ears. It held it's head low, neck stretched, it's gaze locked on the pair of invaders with a spark of intelligence and curiosity they hadn't associated with canines before. With it's ears fully perked and tail straight out behind it, it was a menacing sight.

Just as another low growl cut the air, a voice shot it down with a calm but firm command. "Sven," Anna whipped her head around to see the striking woman from the general store standing on the porch at the edge of the stairs. Olaf's eyes never left the dog. "That's enough."

The redhead swallowed hard as she looked again to the massive canine. It's posture changed immediately, head lifting, big ears laying back, maw open to bear something similar to a grin as he panted and looked to his apparent master. "Go," she added, crossing her arms and motioning with a tilt of her head. "Sven" obeyed without hesitation, disappearing back around the corner of the house.

The young man behind Anna let out a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping as he turned his attention to the blonde next to the front door, "Thanks. Man, that's the biggest dog I've ever seen!"

The redhead said nothing, line of sight now perpetually locked on sapphire eyes. She was caught somewhere between jealousy and terror. The fine hairs at the back of her neck stood on end, and she had to choke down a shiver. The woman was **really** pretty. Really **cold **too.

"I apologize on Sven's behalf. He always tries to bully new-comers, so don't mind him," the woman chuckled mirthlessly, untucking her arms and motioning gingerly for them to join her, "Please, come in. Kristoff is expecting you."

Turning and vanishing into the house, she left the pair standing outside the screen door in an uncomfortable silence. The man took the chance to lean over slightly and whisper conspiratorially to Anna, "Okay, she was a little weird. Still nice though."

The redhead shot him a dirty look, clenching her jaw and whispering a single word in reply, "Traitor," pouting and looking away from him until they heard the pounding of footsteps headed in their direction.

Kristoff poked his head out from within the house, flashing a wide grin and throwing the screen door out to hold it open with one arm, "Heeeey! You made it! Come on in!"

Anna mumbled a pathetic, "Hey."

Olaf cheered a joyful, "Howdy there, stranger!"

After stepping through the threshold, the blond man threw out an enthusiastic hand, gripping Olaf's and shaking vigorously, "Nice to meet ya, man. Kristoff Bjorgman."

Olaf returned Kristoff's exuberant greeting, "Olaf Snow. Thanks for the invite."

As the blond man switched from Anna's friend to her own hand, she corrected herself. _"Oh. Kristoff, not Kristopher. Got it." _"Anna."

Kristoff's smile faltered. "Just Anna?"

"Yep," she flashed one in return that didn't reach her eyes.

The blond paused awkwardly and released her hand, then cleared his throat and looked away, "Alright then, that's cool."

"Was that your sister back there?" Olaf motioned to the porch with his thumb.

"No, that was my dog, Sven. Sorry about him."

Anna almost laughed. Olaf blanched. "Ah, no, man. The girl?"

A beat of silence. The redhead wasn't sure if he was playing dumb, or was genuinely slow, "Oh, her! That's my cousin, Elsa. Don't worry about her, she said it's fine that I'm having guests."

Olaf and Anna shared a look as Kristoff grinned blankly at them. He needed her permission?

"It's great you guys made it!" Even with the woman putting Anna on edge, it was getting difficult to fight the blond man's infectious vivacity, "We haven't had any visitors yet. Let me give you the tour." He spun on his heel and waved over his shoulder for them to follow, "The foyer, obviously," then turned again as he entered the adjoining room, "Living room." He waved with a mighty flourish; Olaf was snickering, and Anna had covered a blooming grin with her hand, other arm crossed over her chest. "Sorry it's nothing fancy," he added with a tinge of disappointment, "Elsa likes it spartan, ya know."

The tour continued much the same through the dining room and kitchen, and took a brief detour to cross the living room again to pass into the other side of the 'L' shaped structure. The first door on the left was open, and Kristoff motioned into it, "My room. Sweetest spot in the place, if I do say so." In comparison to the rest of the home, it was furnished well; comfortable, and surprisingly colorful.

As the blond showed off the next several rooms, an office, a hobby room, a bathroom, Anna realized she was feeling quite at ease. The man was easy to get along with. Maybe he wasn't so bad. _"Cousin's still creepy as Hell though."_

"This is Elsa's room! But," Kristoff glanced about as if he were expecting her to appear out of thin air, then leaned in and covered his mouth in a stage whisper, "I'm not allowed in there."

The duo snorted, and the burly blond motioned for them to turn around, "Alright, grand tour over."

The redhead glanced to the other side of the hall, "What about that one?"

"What one?" Kristoff rested a hand on each of their shoulders and began to turn them to head back toward the dining room.

Anna raised a hand and pointed blatantly, "Closed door across from your cousin's room. What's that room?"

"What door?" He insisted again, smiling dumbly.

The girl dug her heels into the floor and stopped all three of them from proceeding, piercing Kristoff's chocolate hued eyes with her own. Olaf looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Oh, that door!" the man laughed nervously, looking away from Anna as he scratched at the back of his mop of hair, "Private study. You need permission from Elsa to go in there."

Olaf scratched at his own dark locks, passing Anna a discreet expression of curiosity. Again with the permission thing...

The sound of a door swishing open and clicking shut startled all three, jumping and staring as Elsa stepped into the hall from her bedroom. As awkward as the silence a moment before was, this one was punctuated by that cold, stoic stare of the stunning platinum blonde.

"Shouldn't you be offering your guests a meal, Kristoff? You don't want to be rude."

This caused the man to bark an uneasy laugh, his nerves shaking his voice, "Of course. We were just about to do that."

Oceanic pools bounced from Kristoff, to Olaf, then rested on Anna. The redhead's posture stiffened, but she held her ground. She swore she could have heard a pin drop for those few seconds their gazes locked. Then, just like that, she returned her attention to her cousin, "Don't forget the rolls in the oven."

"I haven't. Sheesh, Els."

The woman's lips twitched just slightly upward, the faintest hint of a laugh escaping her as she turned away from them and headed up the hallway. Once she was out of ear-shot, the large man let out a heavy sigh.

"_Was that relief? Is he scared of her too?"_

"Well, let's go. I cooked up some grub specially for today." With that, Kristoff marched off down the hall after his cousin, Olaf and Anna falling in tow. He made quick work of getting them situated in the dining room, where he served up chili, sweet tea, and nearly forgot the rolls in the oven.

The first bite of lunch broke the tension as Anna shamelessly announced, "Holy cow, that's good chili."

The dark haired man cackled, and Kristoff ruffled his hair with a bashful grin, "Thanks. Not to sound cliché, but it's an old family recipe."

"Family recipe, eh? Where are you guys from?" Olaf inquired curiously.

"Oh, uhhh," Olaf was too busy dipping his roll into his bowl to notice, but Anna saw Kristoff glance past her before answering, "North. Ish. The... northern. United states." His words were so staggered that he had to cough, feigning as if he'd gotten some of his food down the wrong pipe with a large gulp of tea. While the blond man was preoccupied, Anna took the chance to check over her shoulder, but saw nothing.

"_I need to check out that room. These people are suspicious, just like Westleton said." _If Olaf had found Kristoff's answer odd, he didn't show it.

She set down her fork next to her bowl, interrupting, "Sorry, but I need to excuse myself for a moment."

"Sure!"

She heard the large blond, but didn't respond, standing up and heading in the direction of the hall as if she were headed for the restroom. After she rounded the corner, she opened, then shut the bathroom door before passing it, getting into her best "sneaky" mindset to approach the so called "private study". The redhead checked the door knob.

_"Unlocked?"_ That was strange considering Kristoff had all but said, "keep the fuck out."

With one more quick, cautious glance around to make sure the coast was clear, she slipped into the room and silently shut the door behind her. Feeling secure again, she straightened up and began to take in the space. Full bookshelves lined the lengths of the walls, and near the rear of the room rest a large mahogany desk littered with papers, books, a laptop; a mess.

Something about that desk pulled her attention, so Anna caved her to instincts and strode over to it, beginning to shuffle through the chaos as quietly as possible. When she reached the bottom of the pile at the center, she realized that underneath was a map of Arendelle county. Just as she was beginning to discern the area of the map made available to her, she noted a mark on the paper, but before she could investigate further a stern voice cut into the quiet like a hot knife through butter.

"What are you doing in here?"

With a yelp of shock, Anna jumped and, staggering back over her own two feet, crashed with none-too-much grace straight into, "Elsa!" Anna gasped as she slapped a hand over her hammering heart.

The woman caught her by the shoulders and steadied her on her feet, seemingly unphased by her reaction, "Careful."

The redhead took a deep breath, trying to calm herself from the adrenaline rush of being caught snooping, eyes closed. When she opened them again, she lifted her head to look up at the platinum blonde less than arms length from her, words falling short when she realized the woman hadn't released her hold on her.

"Well?" her episode of staring was put to a stop, "What are you doing in here?"

"I, ah," Anna floundered, "Just was, um, that is... you see." She stopped. _"Fuck."_ No point in lying. She had been caught red handed. The redheads cheeks scorched with embarrassment. Since when had "stealth" ever been on her list of talents?

However, instead of an angry reception, she found herself pleasantly surprised to see Elsa tilt her head away, a small but confident smirk creeping across her features as blue eyes peered at Anna from an angle, "I see. You're just a curious little scooby, hmm?" Her arms folded across her chest as she dipped a hand behind her neck and swept her braid over the front of her shoulder.

"Hey!" Anna retorted indignantly, though she didn't actually have an argument. _"Hard to debate against it when I was caught digging through her personal stuff, after all."_

A pause. They were still standing awfully close, but Anna wasn't exactly feeling compelled to move. A lopsided, sheepish smile worked it's way past her defenses, and she sighed dramatically, "I suppose it doesn't do any good to deny it now, huh?"

Elsa's smile grew, and Anna's tugged harder at her lips in return. Should she push her luck? _"Ha! Wouldn't be me if I didn't." _

"Soooo," she began cautiously, glancing away before peeking up at the platinum blonde innocently, "What's with that map?"

"A map?" Elsa's expression portrayed the sincerity of her question. "Ah. My cousin." She turned her head away again, tapping the end of her forefinger against her chin, "He sometimes brings his little projects in here. I'll have to remind him to put his things away when he's done with them."

It had come off as a little demeaning, but then again, Anna found it to be a believable behavior if his actions today had been any indication. Still, that primitive niggling at the back of her mind pestered her. Finding it hard to put on a serious face, she went once again on instinct. "You shouldn't give him such a hard time," she chided while lightly slapping the back of her hand against Elsa's arm. It felt strangely natural.

That earned her a playful half laugh, "Someone has to keep him in line. I just happen to be more stubborn than him. That makes me qualified for the job."

The redhead caught herself before she giggled, tugging nervously at one of the twin braids that hung over her shoulders. Was her face burning hotter? _"Nope! Definitely not."_

Quiet. A warm quiet that lacked the awkwardness from before. Anna shuffled her feet, biting at her lower lip as she cast her gaze to the floor, suddenly finding it of intense interest. It only lasted a moment before the blonde spoke up again, "You should head back or you'll worry your host."

That brought Anna back down to Earth. She nodded and abruptly stepped around Elsa, backing up towards the door, "Yep, I really should. Really, really. Sorry about going through your stuff. I-" she cleared her throat as she backpedaled into the hall, "**Ahem**. Sorry." Spinning on her heel, she rushed back to the dining room, hearing a soft cadence of laughter fading behind her.

Anna announced that she wasn't feeling well in that way that tends to keep men from asking, but agreed to wait while Kristoff packed her leftovers into a tupperware container. As goofy as he was, he was polite enough to see them out, "Thanks again for coming. Feel better soon, Anna."

Even as _"completely, totally freakin' weird"_ as the visit had been, she couldn't help but give him a small, but genuine smile, "Let's do this again some other time."

It wasn't until they were halfway to Olaf's place that he piped up, eyeing the redhead with suspicion. "Anna," she glanced over at him, "What's goin' on?"

A beat. "They had a map."

"And? Lots of people have maps, Anna."

"Olaf," the girl slowed the truck to a stop right in the road, turning to look him in the eye. She wanted him to understand how seriously she was taking this, regardless of if she enjoyed today overall or not.

"There was a mark on it; a circle over your property."


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Frozen and it's characters are copyright to disney

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Chapter III: "Mysterious and Spooky"

Sunday night proved turbulent in terms of sleep. Anna had never been a vivid dreamer, and rarely recalled any details. In spite of this, she had awoken several times from slumber in a thin sheen of sweat, a chemical cocktail of fear coursing through her blood with a pounding heart. She didn't have much recollection of the dream, and even had a sense that some part of it had been good. **Really** good. What she did remember was "teeth". Sharp, gleaming teeth.

The idea of suffering through the dreams again kept her up later on Monday night, but come one AM, she crawled into bed, defeated by exhaustion. When she roused several hours later, at first she thought it must have been the dream. She recalled teeth.

Then she heard it. A bellowing cry coming from her livestock. That grounded her like a bucket of ice water, and she lunged from her bed, ignoring her instability as she grabbed for her rifle and bolted down the stairs for the back door.

As she burst through the screen door, she lost all sense of reason. She was positive she had locked them away. But no, they were stampeding across the pasture in a frenzy, bucking, spinning, screaming bloody murder. With a couple of quick, panicked breaths, she took off after the cattle and sheep, ready to dive headlong into the chaos, when she spotted an enormous black mass practically flying away from the herd.

Ten meters out from her berserk livestock, she screeched to a halt, sliding in the mud as she dug in her heels and pressed the butt of her rifle against her shoulder just in time to spot a brighter form dart after the first. Anna let loose a roar of pure rage and fired, the bullet whizzing close enough to the pale figure to glance across it's shoulder, stopping the creature dead in it's tracks.

There was a low rumble of a growl that carried through the ground and hit the redheads ears like the thrum from a bass. The girl was suddenly incredibly dizzy and nauseous; that **thing** was an abomination. A monster. It's head was slowly craning to look at her. The sky rumbled menacingly after it, the light of the moon becoming overcast as stormy clouds rolled in.

With her hands trembling harder than they ever had in her life, Anna popped the bolt on her model 70, something strange prompting her to scream, "Freeze!" She couldn't think. She could barely breathe. She was relatively certain she may have actually pissed herself.

It stopped moving. The girl wanted to pull the trigger, to do it while it was giving her order a moments thought, hesitating. She found she couldn't. If she wanted to speak another word, at this point, even that was beyond her.

What little light remained from the overcast sky brought out the golden reflection of the monsters eyes as it's gaze bored into her. Something about the fact that it's stare held a staggering degree of intelligence caused a flash of Sven to cross her mind. When it's line of sight shifted, aqua pools followed, terror dawning all over again when she spied two dead sheep, and a mangled cow.

Anger and fear bubbled up in her gut again, and she prepared to squeeze the trigger. As the creature looked away from the corpses, she found herself lacking the fortitude again. She didn't know what the fuck to do.

Sensing that Anna couldn't do it in, the beast very gradually, cautiously, began to rear back on it's hind legs, stooping awkwardly as it slowly spread and raised it's arms, front paws... hands... _"what?"_, open in the universal sign for disarmament and surrender.

"What..." it was monumentally turbulent to form words for the redhead, "What **are you**?"

No answer was forthcoming, and she was forced to blink back angry tears of impotent fury. What she saw after that fraction of a second when her eyes opened again, drew a cry of utter disbelief. She was crazy. She had to be crazy. This was insanity.

Standing the thirty or forty feet out where the abomination that had made her feel sick had been, stood Elsa, back to her, hair untamed, hands lifted in the universal sign for disarmament and surrender. "Breathe, or you'll pass out." When she heard Anna gasping for air she arched her back a little, stretching and tilting her head back to eye the foreboding sky, "I didn't take these heads from you. I came here to intercept-" she paused, correcting herself, "to stop him. The one who did this."

Anna's gasps were interrupted by pitiable sobs. Empathy had never been a strong point for Elsa, but she tried to sympathize with the terror she could smell on the air, "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

Human in appearance or not, the sharp ears of a beast could pick up on the fact that the redhead had lowered her gun to her side, trembling violently as she stood barefoot in the mud.

The next several minutes were an internal war for Anna. She could still shoot. But she wasn't a murderer. So for ten minutes, Elsa waited patiently, showing no sign of betrayal or hostility. Eventually, the girls sobs died down to sniffles, and her breathing grew even.

"What are you?"

"A monster." Elsa didn't flinch or hesitate with her reply.

"If that's true, why the **fuck** should I trust you!?" Anna's tone was accusatory.

"If I killed your animals, I'd be covered in blood; I didn't commit this crime. And if you trust me, I can help you."

Another ten minutes of pregnant silence. Elsa was growing uncomfortable holding her arms up, her fingers going numb.

"Can you explain this to me?"

The woman nodded in what was now near pitch darkness, "I can do that."

Anna didn't say anything else, and it took a moment for Elsa to realize that the redhead had begun a sluggish, almost drunken walk back toward her house, opting to follow as far as the front porch. When the redhead disappeared inside, she seated herself on the steps, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her head on them as she thought over the events that had just played out.

It took an hour and a half for the redhead to emerge again, showered, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and a coat, with a cup of coffee in hand. She stood behind the blonde for a moment, closing her eyes and letting out a sigh, "And, you're stark freaking naked."

It was an eerily calm statement. Elsa gave it some thought before cautiously replying, "I suppose in contrast to discovering your neighbor to be a werewolf, nudity is a trivial concern."

Smacking her lips with a bob of her head, Anna made to sit down next to Elsa on the steps of the deck, "That's one way to put it. So, am I insane? Did you slip me a hit of acid at lunch? 'Cause I don't think I'm ever eating at your house again."

The blonde paused, licking her lips and nervously combing her fingers through her unruly hair, "That was an honest coincidence. My cousin just wants to make friends since it's seemed that we'd be here for a while. Tonight proved fruitful, however. I got close."

A wave of resentment rolled out from Anna, and Elsa sucked her teeth, "Sorry. I apologize. I didn't mean- well, I tried to get here before him, but he must have been closer to this location than we thought."

With a long, low breath, the redhead sipped her coffee, letting her temper be soothed, "Well, you probably saved the rest. Olaf and Weasleton lost a lot more."

"And I'm sorry about that, too. If I could have prevented it, I would have."

The pair fell quiet as Anna continued to gather her wits, though after a while, Elsa spoke up again, "Maybe I should take you to talk to Kristoff. He's more of a people person than myself."

"You don't say," the needling sarcasm wasn't missed, but the blonde figured she deserved it. Anna gave the suggestion consideration, regardless. "Fine. Get in the truck, naked girl. I need answers."

It was a long and awkward ride to the Bjorgman place with a very bare, very **attractive** woman riding next to her.

"_No homo," _she told herself, _"Right. Because that makes things not gay. Oh my God, I'm **not** gay. Stop it. She's not even human. Chill the fuck out."_

When the truck pulled into the drive, Kristoff banged his way past the screen door and jogged down the steps up to the passenger side door, flinching when he caught sight of the gash on Elsa's shoulder. Then the fact that she had just arrived in Anna's truck occurred to him.

"Oh, what the fuck, Elsa?"

"I almost caught him-"

"And then what!? She shot you and he gave you the slip!?"

"Well, to be technical, she shot me after he escaped-"

Kristoff leaned angrily through the door of the truck over his cousin to glare furiously down at Anna, "You fuckin' **shot** her!?"

Offering a deadly look of her own, Anna scoffed at him, "That's been established."

"Kristoff! Calm the Hell down." Elsa grabbed Kristoff by a thick shoulder, shoving him back out of the door with one hand, sliding forward slightly in her seat as if to block Anna from him. He only pushed against her hand for a second longer, giving in when he recalled that even with his superior size he couldn't overpower her.

"Take Anna inside and let her make her own coffee." That earned her an incredulous sneer. "I mean it."

Looking like he might argue, he turned and motioned to the redhead, then grunted in what she could only guess was a signal to follow him. Things were already tense, so she decided not to fight and leapt out of her truck after him, leaving Elsa there to have a moment of peace.

Once they were inside, she crossed her arms and stopped solid, glaring up at the back of Kristoff's head, "Who is 'he'?"

The burly man halted cold, shoulders slumping as he sighed, "Just come into the kitchen and fix your coffee. I'll answer your questions in there."

"I want-!"

Kristoff wheeled to face her, encroaching on her personal space as he jammed an angry finger against her shoulder, interrupting before she could continue, "I don't give a fuck. My cuz comes riding up the drive **buck-fucking-naked** and **shot**, **by you **as it so happens, and now she wants me to translate for you **and** let you touch my coffeemaker. So we're gonna have a seat for this discussion."

Anna raised her hands defensively and stepped back from him, eyes wide, "Fine! Have it your way."

The house was quiet until she was done fixing herself a cup of warm comfort and seated at the dining room table. It was for the better, giving the blond man a chance to cool off. Kristoff sat across from her, hands clasped together on the table in front of him as he stared down at his interwoven fingers.

Anna couldn't think of what to say, now that she was there.

"I know you're probably thinking you've lost your mind, but you haven't."

"So, what? I'm supposed to believe your cousin has some gypsy curse on her or something?"

"No! It's not like that."

"You're saying she really is a werewolf? A monster?"

Kristoff separated his hands and clenched them into fists. She thought he was going to debate that Elsa wasn't a monster, but he didn't. "She was born that way. A lot of us are."

A silence permeated by confusion. "You're one too?"

"Well, sort of. I've got the blood, but not the change. Sven too. Sort of." The man rubbed anxiously at the side of his neck.

Anna closed her eyes. She found his explanation vague and annoying. "You're gonna have to explain that."

Leaning forward on his elbows, Kristoff lifted a hand to rub at his furrowed brow, "Okay. So, werewolves. Most of them are born into it. It's a genetic trait. But some of us can be born into the family, lacking the gene that enables us to change. We're still tougher and have stronger senses than an average person, but we can't change our form. We're called the ken."

Anna opened her eyes, finding his elaboration to be more acceptable, "Go on."

"Then there's animal-ken, like Sven. He can change some, but not into a humanoid."

"And Elsa?"

The blond man hesitated. Anna was about to press him when the woman's voice carried over them, "I'm the were. I put on the skin of the animal. I have the change."

The redhead turned to look at Elsa, now clean and clad in simple shorts and a tee. Shaking her head, she cast her gaze to the floor, "This is kind of hard to wrap my head around. So how 'bout I ask something a little more simple: who is 'he'?"

The blonde woman hummed thoughtfully, stepping over toward Anna and pulling the chair from the end of the table to perch on the same side as the redhead. Anna couldn't decide whether to scoot her own chair away or not.

"Well, ya see, Elsa here-" Kristoff yelped at the top of his lungs, jumping in his seat and crashing his knees against the underside of the table, sliding back and gripping his stomped upon foot.

The redhead gave Elsa a look of contempt while Kristoff whined, which once again left her unaffected, "Sorry. We're only allowed to disclose so much. But he is an escaped criminal from our home, a place we call the caern or coven."

Anna wrinkled her nose in distaste, "Coven? Like witches?"

Both Kristoff and Elsa frowned at that, sharing a bitter look. "We dislike the comparison," Elsa finally disclosed.

"So the map?"

The man tilted his head, looking over at Elsa again for an explanation, still in the dark about the earlier events that took place in the private study.

"We're tracking his movements."

All were quiet for a while after that, until the redhead spoke up, "Why me?"

"I **never** intended for you to see me, or even know I was there. Your friend, Olaf, was smart and stayed away from the pasture, so when I came looking, he never knew." She paused, seeming to be gauging if what was on the tip of her tongue was appropriate, "Guess he's not a scooby."

Anna cracked a smile in spite of herself, closing her eyes and letting loose a breath of exasperation. The smile was short lived, and perished in the next void in conversation. Her voice became solemn, "I don't think I can believe any of this. You're the best liars I have ever met, but you're liars." The redhead glanced sadly between them, sliding her chair back a bit to stand, "I'm going home, and I really hope that I don't see either of you again. Ever."

The fair-haired duo flinched. There was no anger in her tone, just regret and despair. She was hoping it was a bad dream.

The split-second of hesitation before she moved to turn away gave Elsa the chance to lunge upward from her seat, slamming her hands against the tabletop with enough force for the sound of it to send the others jumping away, "You can't!" It was an order, not a request. A demand.

"Elsa! For God's- fuckin', just let her go!" Kristoff motioned to the girl with an open hand.

"**Kristoff!**" Elsa's tone was chastising, turning her gaze to him with a look of utter disappointment. "We did this to her," she added in a reasonable tone. Then, more pitifully, "I did this to her."

"Hello? I'm standing right here! Did **what **to me!?" Anna interrupted, and both swung their eyes to meet her before looking back at one another. Her temper was beginning to spike again, "Is this some," she waved a hand, searching for a comparison, "Mafioso bullshit where, 'ohhh, you know too much, now you work for us'?"

The blonde woman looked back and forth from Anna to Kristoff, taking on a grave expression as she pleaded silently with her cousin.

"Els..." the man sighed, slumping back in his seat and slapping a hand over his face in frustration. When he peered up at her again from between his fingers, he groaned. The look of hurt she was currently displaying broke his mental fortitude.

With his shoulders giving way, he stared down at his lap and took a deep breath, then looked back up at Anna, who seemed about to blow a gasket, "So, remember that part where I said you haven't lost your mind?"

Elsa looked away from the both of them, shame written on her countenance. Anna's mouth fell open, aghast.

Kristoff finished the confession with a deeply set frown, "You haven't. Yet."


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: I just wanna say, I'm surprised at how many follows I got so soon. I also appreciate the reviews; your supportive attitudes are very motivating.

Disclaimer: Frozen. Disney. Belongs to.

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Chapter IV: "And with strange aeons..."

The news was not well received. Anna clenched her fists at her sides, shaking as her face grew dark. She spoke through her teeth, "What do you mean 'yet'?"

Kristoff shifted uncomfortably in his seat, shooting a quick glance to Elsa, whose line of sight was locked on the trembling redhead. The girl was making him nervous. "You saw something you weren't meant to see. I don't mean that in some mumbo-jumbo metaphorical way. No human escapes a monster sighting unscathed."

Panic washed over Anna like a sharp, cold rain, and her previously red face drained of color. With wide eyes, she stared blankly ahead, waiting for the man to continue.

"It's likely that once you come out of the shock of what you've seen, you'll lose your sanity temporarily. Maybe," he cleared his throat and swallowed hard, "maybe permanently. It's like an illness; the symptoms are brutal and can take hours before they start to manifest."

The words were strangled, but the redhead managed a feeble, "How likely?"

A heavy pause saturated by pheromones of fear assaulting the fair-haired cousins' senses.

"There are no recorded cases in our history of an exception." Elsa confessed.

Anna's breaths were coming in short, sharp gasps, aqua eyes, filled to the brim with terror, jack-knifing between the pair and the room adjacent that led to the exit. She tensed.

Elsa and Kristoff passed each other a split-second glance before lunging after the redhead, who broke into an abrupt flight for the front door.

Kristoff nearly caught her, his hand missing her arm by inches. His miscalculation caused him to hit the doorjamb of the dining room, staggering him further behind the fleeing girl with a loud, "**FUCK!**"

As Anna passed through the living room and into the foyer, she spared a glance over her shoulder; she didn't see Elsa, and didn't hear her footsteps. Vanished?

One step out from the door, she reached out to push the screen open and swung her gaze back around, slamming forcefully into the missing woman, who took a tight hold of her wrists as the redhead was repelled. Blue eyes flashed golden, and she opened her mouth in a snarl that revealed jagged, bestial teeth, releasing her hold when the younger woman backpedaled with a screech of fright.

Kristoff caught her before she fell, but the girl twisted and flailed, nailing the man's eye with her elbow. Swearing again, he stumbled a bit away from her, letting her hit the floor. The image of Elsa standing in that doorway, tall and commanding, was a terrific sight that called forth another shriek as Anna turned and scrambled at the floor to gain her footing.

Too late. Anna's stumbling gave Elsa the advantage she needed, and the woman was on her. She all but tackled the redhead, once again gripping her wrists and trapping them as she pressed herself bodily against her back and pinned her to the floor. The redhead struggled mightily, finding no give in the blonde's hold. As she continued to fight, she began hollering at the top her lungs, "Fuck you! This is fucked up! Let me fucking go! It's not fucking true!"

Elsa pressed down harder on her in response, pleading for reason in the face of fear, "Anna, please! Just listen!"

Another moment of trying to twist, and push, and pull, and Anna lay panting with her cheek pressed against the hardwood of the entry way.

"If you go out there with the sickness, they will lock you away and never let you out. You'll be a danger to other people and to yourself."

Anna squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the words, still gasping for breath.

"It would be negligent-" she paused, "No; outright irresponsible of us to let you go."

Elsa felt the strain of the redheads muscles beginning to wane, noting the sound of Kristoff muttering about his eye and the shuffle of his feet as he stood back up.

"I said I could help you, and I can, but I need you to trust me."

The girl sighed and swallowed the urge to cry out her frustration, "That's asking a lot considering the circumstances."

The blonde hesitated, loosening her hold on the redhead below her but still not releasing, "I know, but if you give me the chance, I'll show you that I deserve that trust." A beat. "Please," she begged more softly than before.

Time really seemed to drag on in the quiet that followed. Kristoff observed in studious silence as Elsa patiently waited for Anna to answer her.

"I don't want this," the girl whimpered.

"I know, but it's happening. Let me help you through this, and if you want, after that you won't ever have to see us again."

The last of Anna's resolve crumbled, and Elsa felt a physical shift in the girls body that prompted her to slowly lift herself from the floor back onto her feet. She watched the redhead as she continued to lay defeated on the hardwood for a moment longer before switching her attention to Kristoff, who was nursing his sore eye socket.

"Wow, she really clocked you good."

Kristoff looked away with an angry snort, "Shut up."

It took a while for Anna to get herself together, and Kristoff left once he was assured things had settled down to put the girl's livestock back in their proper place. That left Elsa alone with the redhead. She volunteered her room for the duration of Anna's stay and it proved to be "spartan", as the man had called it.

A nightstand with an alarm clock and a lamp next to a bed that lacked a frame sat against the far wall below a single window (with dark curtains drawn), and a plain wooden dresser was perched next to the door. There wasn't much else, save a few books stacked neatly against the wall.

They spoke little as the blonde changed the sheets and blankets on the bed. It was growing close to dawn by the time she finished and cautiously stepped past Anna to leave her to her privacy. She stopped briefly outside the door, hand rested on the knob, "If you need anything, call."

Anna shifted her weight slightly from one foot to the other, staring morosely at the carpet beneath her feet. Elsa seemed to sense that she wanted to say something and lingered, waiting patiently for what felt like the thousandth time that night.

"I'm scared."

The blonde crossed her arms over her chest in discomfort, looking away from the girl, using the gentlest tone possible, "I'm sorry for frightening you back there. I couldn't let you leave." From her periphery she saw Anna eyeing her closely, her own arms folded defensively.

With no small sense of shame, Elsa sighed, then opened her mouth, allowing the redhead to see that the savage fangs she presented before were no longer visible. If it weren't for feeling so thoroughly drained, Anna might have cracked a smile. Instead, she looked back down at her feet.

Elsa's brow furrowed as she straightened her posture, "I won't hurt you."

This time Anna did smile; an empty smile without mirth. "You already have."

Guilt washed openly over the taller woman's countenance. Silence. Then Elsa took a step closer to Anna, tongue darting across her lips nervously, opening her mouth as if to speak, then closing again. How could she possibly respond to that?

"Stay here until I fall asleep."

That was jarring. Elsa shook her head, trying to clear out the fog of confusion the statement brought on, "I'm sorry, what?"

"My whole world just changed," she sounded tired, distant, "I kind of hate you, but you're the only thing that seems vaguely familiar to me right now."

"Maybe it would be better if Kristoff-"

"Not Kristoff."

The blonde looked about the room uneasily while wringing her hands, unsure of how to respond to **that** either.

"You did this to me."

Rolling her jaw and closing her eyes as she drew a deep breath, Elsa clenched and unclenched her fists, "Yes. I did." Seconds ticked by before she concluded, "I will... stay."

The redhead didn't say another word. She simply switched out the lights and climbed into the bed, disappearing under the covers. A moment in the quiet, and Elsa stepped over to the foot of the bed, pressing her back against the wall and sliding to the floor. Anna was trying to hide it, but she knew under the sanctuary of the blankets, the girl was crying.

And Elsa **felt** like a monster.

With time both drifted into slumber. The blonde was granted a merciful three hours of rest before she awoke, head lulled against the wall, back stiff, to see the dim silhouette of Anna sitting rigidly upright on the mattress. The blonde's breath caught in her throat, reaching up to rub the sleep from her eyes. The room was eerily silent.

After several minutes of watching Anna stare wide-eyed at the wall, she opted to ask after her in a whisper, "Anna?"

No answer.

A little louder, "Anna?"

Elsa was about to move to get up when Anna abruptly turned her head to look at her, an extremely awkward pause grinding home what was about to occur. Anna's eyes flew open all the wider, she drew a deep breath, and screamed a shrill, horrified scream at the top of her lungs. Elsa immediately flinched and slapped her palms over her ears, jumping from her spot against the wall and rushing out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

She uncovered her ears only to see Kristoff galloping up the hall to see what the racket was, nearly bowling her over in the process, "What the fuck, Els!?" He covered his own ears. The scream stopped for a second, no doubt for Anna to inhale before unleashing another terrible shriek. "You can't leave her in there alone!" he shouted above the noise.

"Shit!" She hadn't even thought it through before making a break for it. The blonde spun on her heel and dashed back into the room as quickly as she had escaped.

"**No, wait!**" Kristoff tried to warn her not to just burst right back into the hot zone, but it was too late. On the other side of the door, he heard the sound of ceramics shattering. He sucked his teeth, "_This is why we don't have nice things._"

The moment the door closed, Elsa had to dodge the projectile (her lamp; her **nice** lamp) launched full-force by the frenzied Anna, who was shaking like a leaf in the corner of the room. Elsa couldn't know it, but Anna was seeing Elsa's bestial side as she had the night before rather than Elsa herself.

Keeping her knees bent in preparation to parry again, Elsa made sure to make her hands open and easily visible to the crazed girl. At first she didn't move, but when Anna turned to squeeze herself more tightly against the walls, the woman felt less threatened and more sympathetic. She was like a scared little child. "Anna. It's me. Elsa. I'm here to help you, remember?"

The girl shook her head as she pressed her face into the corner, hands covering her eyes as a sob wracked her frame.

Relaxing her posture a bit further, the blonde began to take slow, cautious steps toward the redhead, "It's okay. I-" she paused, unsure of what to say to set the girl at ease, "I'm here to protect you."

As Elsa drew near, Anna sank down to the floor and pulled her legs in close, trying to shrink, disappear from sight.

Another step.

"**MONSTER**." Tears streamed down Anna's cheeks as she took a quick and terrified look up at Elsa before covering her eyes again.

Elsa stopped, frozen. The first emotion to flash across her face was anger as she stood up straight and squared her shoulders, but it dissipated into despair.

"I'm," hurt, remorse, concern, "I'm not a monster. I'll... protect you from them."

Not a complete lie.

Still erring on the side of caution, the blonde closed the last few steps to the redhead and slowly knelt, extending a hand with great care to offer it to the girl. "You need rest, Anna."

Anna eyed the woman warily, though she seemed to look above and beyond, as if her spatial dimensions were larger. Elsa wasn't expecting to be knocked back onto her rear when the redhead lunged and gave her a smothering squeeze around her ribcage, face buried against her shoulder. Hysterical sobs wracked the girl and the blonde floundered; was it safe to let her do that? What did she want?

It was incredibly awkward to simply sit there with the redhead clinging to her. After a minute of letting her arms dangle limply with no sign of Anna relenting, she none-too-certainly set her hands on the girls back. When the reply was another squeeze that pressed the air from her chest, she gently patted the redhead, "You're alright. It's okay." Elsa wasn't used to providing platitudes, so she kept it simple.

Anna cried until she got the hiccups and up-chucked. Elsa managed to get her back into the bed, and waited until she was sleeping again to have Kristoff briefly trade places with her. It was on her way back in (with a fresh top) that he paused in the door to quietly request a moment to speak with her. The woman quickly peered into the room, checking that the redhead was still resting before nodding to him and stepping back out.

Kristoff pulled the door shut behind her. His voice was hushed, but severe, "The caern would disagree with this."

His cousin eyed him before setting her hands on her hips and tilting her head, arching a delicate eyebrow, "Do you?"

A hasty answer nearly slipped past his lips, but he managed to shut his mouth. Brown eyes glanced from the Elsa to the closed door, and back again, "I don't know, but that doesn't matter. Being accepted by the caern **does** matter to me, though."

"Then if it causes a problem, I'll take the heat. There's no way you can fight me on the issue, so if this is a mistake, it'll be my mistake."

Kristoff rolled his jaw, looking uncertain, "I don't want you to get kicked out and have to live as a rogue either."

"Don't be scared, Kristoff. Even on your own, you'll be fine. You don't need me to hold your hand, and taking the caern's side will prove your loyalty to them, even if you can't stop me. I'll make sure they know you opposed my decision."

The man frowned. He knew that she knew that wasn't what this was about. Life as a rogue monster was extremely difficult and often fatal. It was apparent that she was determined to dismiss that fact, however.

"Now, go get some rest. I'll need you to go care for Anna's stock this evening."

Kristoff sighed, rubbing an exhausted hand over his face and slumping tiredly, "Yeah, alright. Fine." He turned, and with one last glance over his shoulder, slagged back down the hall toward his room.

Once he was out of sight, Elsa faced the door and took a deep, cleansing breath. The next several days were going to be tough, but she was determined to see it through.


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: You're getting an early update because I may not have time to post tomorrow morning. If that's the case, you'll get the next part tomorrow night. Somebody in the reviews asked, "why would we hate you for writing this?" The best answer I can give is that, I'm not really referring to hate-hate, I'm referring to love-hate. Beyond that, all I can say is, you'll see. Also, with this being chapter five, we're getting close to the adult content, and I feel like I should go ahead and give some heads-up that the content rating will go up to 'M' at chapter 8.

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright to Disney corp.

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Chapter V: "Climb into his skin..."

Anna's madness became worse as hours passed. The second day saw to more frequent bouts of panic and dismay, and resulted in Elsa's alarm clock shattering much like her lamp. The blonde became more adept at calming the girl each time though, and by two AM on the third day, the redhead remained calm so long as Elsa was present.

That lasted until Anna broke into a fever. Her waking time was delirious and filled with hallucinations, which by night had turned to terrors that sent her into fits of thrashing and screaming; about monsters, and teeth, and being eaten alive. The stress of caring for the girl was beginning to eat at both Elsa and Kristoff, though Elsa had a patience that the man lacked.

The last bout had seen the blonde woman hit pretty hard by a flailing fist, square on the nose. She emerged from the room with blood dripping down her chin and a distinctly human bite mark on her forearm.

When she passed through the living room to go to the kitchen, however, Kristoff saw the bloody nose and jumped to his feet to follow her, "What the Hell happened, Els?"

Elsa snatched a dish towel and ran it under the sink, giving her cousin a chance to look at her arm. "She **bit** you!?"

The blonde woman held the cool damp cloth to her nose, voice coming out nasally, "And clobbered me too. You know, she hits pretty hard for a human."

Kristoff slumped, slack-jawed. He studied Elsa's face for any trace of anger or resentment, but found none. Just nonchalance. Now, he knew his cousin was a patient person, but before recently-

His nostrils flared, and he suddenly straightened up, cocking his head curiously, "Elsa."

"Hmm?" She turned away briefly to run the cloth under the sink again.

"Something weird is going on with you. You've never let anyone land a hit on you." The man furrowed his brow, adding a mumbled aside, "Or let anyone walk away for trying, for that matter."

"She caught me off guard."

"**That's** what I'm talking about."

Elsa crossed her arms in that confident posture she adopted so well, squinting with skepticism at her cousin, mulling over his words.

"_Well, he has a point. When was the last time somebody caught you off guard?"_

Another moment of thought. "She was just lucky."

Kristoff stepped toward her, getting into her personal space and squatting a bit to meet her at eye level. Elsa didn't back down. The man moved abruptly again, making to shove her by the shoulder. Elsa caught his hand and squeezed, pressing his wrist back and bringing him to one knee with ease.

Kristoff flashed a knowing grin, "That's what I thought."

Elsa's calm countenance fell and she frowned, letting slip a low, feral growl.

"I can smell her on you, Elsa. Don't get attached. You know we can't stay."

The blonde woman released his hand and flung his arm away from her, stepping past him in a flurry and flinging the towel into the sink, making sure her knee caught his shoulder to send him sprawling onto his back, "**Fuck off!**"

Kristoff pushed himself up into a sitting position, taking hold of his sore hand and trying to rub the pain away, "Maybe a bad move..." He muttered to himself, flinching as he flexed his hand experimentally, "Yep. Bad move." He would need the cold compress from the freezer.

Elsa returned to her room with hurried steps, slowing them once the door was closed behind her. Sliding down the wall at her place near the foot of the bed, blue eyes studied the deeply sleeping figure of the redhead. After a moment, she frowned again, looking away and scoffing at Kristoff's statement.

Quietly in the dark, she spoke to both herself and Anna.

"I could stay if I wanted."

Another day of waking nightmares, and Anna began to show the promise of recovery. She awoke with slightly more coherency, asking for a drink of water, but fell asleep immediately after rather than having a fit. In spite of Kristoff's conviction, he breathed a (secret) sigh of relief alongside Elsa.

The redhead repeated the pattern several more times throughout the day, and when night came and she was sure Kristoff was asleep, Elsa gradually crept up to the head of the bed on hands and knees. She decided to keep her vigil there for the evening, and soon her head lulled and she passed into sleep. It was the longest stint of rest she'd had in nearly a week, so when she woke up near dawn to find Anna peering up at her, she actually cracked a small smile.

Aqua eyes squinted. The girl looked exhausted, but it was wonderful to see some measure of clarity in her features.

"Feeling better?" Elsa asked quietly, voice carrying the rasp of slumber.

Anna groaned, her own voice hoarse, "You're incredible."

The blonde felt her cheeks burn, looking away from Anna as she discreetly reached up to rub the sleep from her eyes, covering the fact that she was blushing quite flawlessly, "Wh-what are you talking about?"

"You're so pretty. Like," she paused to swallow, mouth dry, "unreal. It makes me jealous."

Elsa shifted uncomfortably, drawing her knees up to wrap her arms around them, the scorch of blood coursing to her face hitting the tips of her ears. She looked at Anna from the corner of her eye, waiting for her to continue.

At first, Anna looked a bit confused, as if she weren't sure what she wanted to say. Then a somber expression replaced it, "But you're so cold. You seem," a beat as the girl closed her eyes, sighing tiredly, "lonely."

Elsa sighed and pressed her face against her thighs, hugging her legs more tightly, not knowing what to say. It only took a few seconds for Anna to be asleep again.

From that point until the next night, the blonde woke Anna every few hours to help her catch up on fluid intake. Finally, the girl's fever broke.

With her face buried in Sven's bushy tan fur, it took the redhead a moment to realize her whereabouts when morning came again. She was hugging the massive beast, who lay flat and still on the mattress next to her. When he realized she was moving, he lifted his head and peered down at her, head cocking thoughtfully as she rolled back away from him and rubbed at her eyes with a groan.

She wasn't sure, and her mind was foggy from the ache in her muscles and her ravenous stomach, but she thought she might have asked to see Sven at some point in the last hours of her fever. Before she could look at him again, he hopped off the mattress and trotted out the door. Anna remained, resting on her back and attempting to rouse herself further before she heard the gallop of footsteps thrumming loudly through the house.

The door banged against the wall and Elsa charged in, stumbling to a halt in the center of the room. Cold, stoic Elsa beamed at the sight of the redhead sitting up with a groggy waver, once again rubbing the heel of her hand against her eye. Kristoff staggered into the doorway behind her, grabbing hold of the door frame to stop from crashing into his cousin. He cracked a grin, but quickly smothered it.

Anna, however, had dropped her hand to her lap, staring at the stunning smile and glowing eyes of Elsa. Her heart began to jackhammer.

"_Yep. Stunning. Look up 'stunning' in the dictionary and you'll see that smile." _Anna felt her face flush at the dawning awareness that she was ogling the woman, agape.

Kristoff could only tolerate the pair simpering at one another for so long, and coughed awkwardly into his fist.

The redhead startled slightly, hoarsely letting out an impulsive, "Hi!"

The blond man glanced at his cousin. _"Oh God, reign it in, Elsa." _He thought to himself, rolling his eyes.

As if reading his mind, the woman relaxed, pulling back on the grin, "Welcome back."

An uneasy lull in the conversation. Then Anna groaned, setting a hand against her stomach, "Oh my God, do you guys have any food?"

It didn't take too long for Kristoff to cook up pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. He and Anna ate quietly for a couple of minutes while Elsa sipped a mug of coffee and read the paper. Once the worst of her hunger pangs were settled, the redhead spoke around a mouthful of eggs. "So, I was thinking while I was waking up," she swallowed, "Since you guys were telling the truth, I think I need to ask you some questions."

Elsa lowered her paper enough to peer at the girl from over the top, and Kristoff swallowed his own bite before looking up at her.

"I mean, you say this guy is an escaped criminal, right? A werewolf criminal?" she asked as she cut out another slice from her pancakes.

The woman returned to the paper, and Kristoff nodded, "Yeah. That's right."

"So, I need to know some stuff. In case he comes after me, right?"

The man opened his mouth, wanting to dispute Anna's question, but a quick glance from Elsa told him to answer. He sighed. "Okay, fine," he relented, shoving another bite of eggs into his mouth.

"Great!" Anna cheered, "First question is, how much of the rumors and mythos is true?"

The blonde woman peeked at the redhead again, but didn't say anything.

"Well," Kristoff began, "There are kernels of truth."

"Like? Silver?"

"It's kind of like a poisonous allergy," he hesitated as if he wasn't sure how to explain it, "Contact with our skin can cause a rash, or a burn, if it's pure and concentrated. In the bloodstream, it can slow us down, or, with enough, kill us."

Anna took another bite of her food, listening studiously.

"But like a lot of toxic things, if a were gradually introduces their body to it in tiny, increasing increments, they can build some immunity." A beat, "Oh, like Elsa!" He motioned to the woman with an open palm.

She tried to ignore the gesture, but after a very expectant look from Anna, sighed heavily, folded her paper, and set it on the table. She turned the side of her head to the girl, then pointed to the small (and intricately designed) ear ring in her ear. The redhead looked slightly confused, "Really? Just that little bit can make a difference?"

"I've done more with it. Ingested it, specifically."

Aqua pools widened in surprise, "You... poisoned yourself?"

This caused the cousins to chuckle, Kristoff more than Elsa.

"It's not as exciting as it sounds. The increase is so slight that you never really notice a difference until suddenly, a large dose doesn't effect you like it normally would."

"How do you find out?"

"If you're lucky, you don't." Kristoff interjected.

"Otherwise, how else? You test it."

Anna's postured shifted uneasily. "Did you?" She asked, looking Elsa in the eye.

One corner of Elsa's lip twitched upward, looking somewhat smug as she leaned toward the table to rest on her elbow, "I did."

Anna looked like she'd burst if she didn't know, "How!?"

The burly man once again found himself rolling his eyes, face-palming and leaning back in his seat with a groan. He hated it when Elsa gloated; it was a symptom of life in the caern, particularly for his cousin.

Elsa hooked a delicate finger into the collar of her shirt and pulled down slightly, revealing a circular mark with webbed scarring creeping out from it below her collar bone, "I was shot," she paused to point her finger in the shape of a gun at Anna, "by a silver bullet."

When Anna actually gasped- **gasped, **for fucks sake, Kristoff could have hurled. This was creepy. Not to mention, probably wrong on some level, considering what Anna had just been through. He shot his cousin a dirty look and cleared his throat, "To answer your question, the silver thing is at least somewhat true, if misunderstood."

With the redheads attention back on him, the man relaxed a bit, pushing his empty plate away from him.

"How 'bout gypsy curses and pacts with the devil?"

Kristoff shook his head as Elsa returned to reading her paper, "I thought we cleared that up? No, none of that-"

"Well, that may not be entirely true," the woman interrupted from behind the safety of the paper. "Some historical texts suggest that the first may have been cursed or granted power from an outside force, but it was an extremely long time ago, so there's no way to know just how reliable the stories are."

The blond man eyed Elsa carefully. What was she doing? When she didn't continue, he turned back to Anna, "Like I've said, most werewolves are born that way."

"Most?"

Kristoff hesitated. Elsa wasn't giving him any signal to stop. "The genetic trait of the ones with the change can be infectious."

Anna tilted her head, "So, the thing about a bite or scratch?"

"It's transmitted through blood contact."

"Okay, then, if there are differences between the ones that are born that way, what's the difference between one that's born, and one that's infected?"

Silence. The man didn't want to answer that.

Elsa did instead, in spite of his reluctance, "Control. An infected monster changes with the full moon. It's hypothesized that the moon exacerbates the condition, causing an 'episode'; forcing the change to occur."

Anna seemed to mull the information over, a light-bulb going off in her head, "Control? So, you can change whenever you want?"

Elsa looked to Kristoff and they shared a few seconds of quiet worry before turning to Anna, who appeared to be far too curious for her own good.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright of the Disney corporation

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Chapter VI: "... and walk around in it."

Elsa burst through the screen door and stormed down the stairs of the deck with heavy, hurried steps, flinging her arm into the air with dismissal, "No freakin' way!"

Anna fell in tow behind her, trying to keep up with the long strides of the blonde woman, "Oh, come on! This will help me understand." Her tone carried frustration. Honestly, she hadn't expected her request to cause a conflict.

"No, Anna! It just isn't done! You have no clue how intensely private it is-"

"You're right, I don't, but I'd like to."

Elsa halted so abruptly that Anna nearly bumped into her, having to flail her arms to catch her balance. The blonde looked over her shoulder with narrowed eyes at the redhead, "Too bad."

The front door slammed again and Kristoff came marching out after the pair, arms swinging at his sides, his fists clenched, "Elsa! You-"

"Elsa, if I'm going to trust you, I can't be afraid of you!" Anna cut in.

The taller woman spun on her heel, stepping in so close to the redhead that they were nearly touching, blue eyes glaring, "You **should** be."

"**Ladies!**" The man raised his voice above the argument, taking both by the shoulder to push them apart, "You're both acting crazy! Calm down."

Elsa scoffed and looked away, crossing her arms over her chest defensively and cocking a hip. Anna did much the same, though her pout was more open than the blonde's.

Kristoff gulped around a lump in his throat and looked to his cousin, "I think she's right."

Elsa's head whipped around and she gawked at him, "Just whose side are you on!?"

"But, **Anna**," the man looked to the redhead, "I need to talk to you before you do this."

The blonde woman opened her mouth to argue, but Kristoff interjected again, "Elsa, if she doesn't see it for herself now that she's been told what she's been told, she'll always wonder if she what she actually saw that night was real."

Anna said nothing, continuing to pout.

With a grim frown, Elsa finally relented. "Fine. Tonight." She sighed in exasperation.

"But-" the redhead started again.

"No. Shut up." Kristoff told her poignantly, pointing a stern finger at her.

It took the trio a while to cool off, Kristoff heading around back to vent to Sven, Elsa going for a walk, and Anna sitting on the steps of the porch. She waited an hour before the man came walking back around the corner of the house with Sven at his heel, hands shoved into his pockets and eyes on the ground.

The redhead decided to let him take the reigns on the conversation, seeing as he had been so grave about the whole thing.

"There are some things you need to know before you and Elsa do this," he began, "First thing being, Elsa is not kidding about it being private. Weres with the change do **not** shift in front of others. Not even other weres."

Anna exercised caution for once as she prodded for more information, "Why not?"

Kristoff licked his lips, lifting his hands up near his head as he shifted his weight, "Just imagine your most personal secret, and having to actually wear it where everyone could see it. It's not pretty. Changing without the moon's aid is painful and disturbing, and most with the change do not want to expose others to-" he hesitated, "to such a deep wound."

Anna's gaze dropped to her shoes as she wrapped her arms around her knees, and the man continued, "Which leads to my second point."

"And that is?"

"Weres do not take on the change during day."

Anna rested her cheek atop her knees, head turned to eye the man, "Like a vampire?"

Kristoff groaned and slapped a hand against his face. Sven snorted from behind the man's legs. "No, not like a vampire," he said in a huff, "Think about it. What kind of chaos would it cause if someone saw a werewolf in broad daylight?"

The redhead pursed her lips, but nodded, muttering to herself, "That makes sense."

"Last thing; no matter how good her intentions are, remember that Elsa **is** a monster. A beast. So, no matter what you see, do **not** run. You'll want to, but you can't, or she could kill you."

That stone cold fact sent a shiver racing up Anna's spine, and she gnawed her lower lip in trepidation, eyes closed. The pair lingered in an uneasy silence until Anna broke it, "You sure it's not a curse?"

Kristoff looked to the ground sadly. "No. I guess not."

Elsa didn't return until the sun was setting, and didn't speak to either Kristoff or Anna until it was time to go a few hours after dark. The redhead was sitting on the steps with Sven, Kristoff perched on the rail above her. They had taken the opportunity of having time that afternoon to get to know each other a bit, and for Anna to finally really meet Sven. It seemed a little bizarre at first, having Kristoff speak for the... _"dog?"_ but she grew used to it.

The blonde woman wasn't usually the type to eavesdrop, but couldn't resist stopping for a moment just inside the door to listen.

"You know, Kristoff," Anna paused, "You played it up like you were some kind of idiot when we met, but you're not. Why the big facade?"

"Ahh. That's why ken don't grow up in the caern. Even when you first met Elsa, she was pretty scary, right?"

Elsa heard nothing, but assumed the girl had given Kristoff some form of affirmation, "Well, even when a were looks like a human, they give actual humans bad vibes. Ken grow up among humans in order to know how they act and how to play as a kind of distraction. Hard to be scared of the were when you can't get close to them because there's a big bumbling fool in the way."

A beat. "You were protecting Elsa?"

The blonde woman heard the hesitation in his voice, "Something like that."

With that, Elsa scoffed, opened the door, and stepped out onto the porch, letting the screen slam behind her, interrupting before the pair could continue their conversation, "Alright, kids. Time to go."

Kristoff dropped from the railing and stretched his arms over his head, arching his back, "Yeah, I better go feed Anna's animals."

Anna jumped. She had nearly forgotten the livestock, "Oh! Th-"

The man waved a dismissive hand before she could thank him, "Don't worry about it." He flashed a tired, but genuine smile, hopping down the steps and walking off in the direction of Anna's home.

Elsa and Anna watched quietly as he disappeared, silent. After a while, the redhead felt a gentle nudge against her lower back, and tilted her head up to see Elsa standing directly behind her, presumably lowering the foot she'd budged Anna with. She leaned forward just so, tilting her head to look directly down at the girl sitting by her feet, "We should go too."

The light from the waning moon and crystal clear stars provided plenty to see by as the two began to make their way around the back of the house, and toward the treeline of the forest in the distance. Elsa's silence gave Anna a chance to reflect on the things Kristoff had told her to remember.

It wasn't until they breached the woods that Anna finally spoke up, "Kristoff called the change a 'deep wound'."

"Did he?" Elsa's tone was callous. There was a lull, and she sighed, shaking her head as if it would dispel her currently dour attitude, "That's... what it is. A deep wound."

The blonde's steps didn't falter, and Anna hugged her arms around herself as the foliage grew thicker, and the light from the sky above faded under the shadows of the treetops.

"In the caern, a 'deep wound' means a scar on a persons spirit or soul; it's a hurt so deep that it defines the person." The woman ran her tongue over her lips, swallowing dryly, "It's what makes us a monster."

They were quiet for a long time after that, until finally, Anna stopped, straining to see Elsa's face when she turned to look at the girl. Disregarding Kristoff's warning, Anna confessed, "I don't think you're a monster."

Elsa's expression fell pitiably, once again turning away to continue walking. She gave no response, and the redhead came back into step with her. A while later they hit a gap in the brush, and Elsa stopped to look around; plenty of space between the trees here.

Anna must have been lost in thought, because she bumped into Elsa's back with an "umph" and had to grab onto the woman in order to avoid falling back onto her butt.

Elsa tensed, head whipping around to eye the girl clinging to her jacket, who had the good sense to look embarrassed, muttering a quick, "Sorry!" as she released her hold on the woman and backpedaled.

The blonde had to look away to smother the smile that threatened to crack her moody frontage, "It's fine." She returned her attention to looking about, "This seems as good a place as any."

Anna began to wring her hands, peering up at the back of Elsa's head nervously, "So, what happens now?"

Elsa took a steadying breath, slowly turning to face the girl. She nodded a bit to the left and behind her, "Move back."

Anna obeyed, watching where she stepped. When she looked up again, the woman had slipped out of her shoes and was sliding her jacket down her arms, letting it fall to the ground unceremoniously before lifting the hem of her button-down to undo her belt. The redhead's eyes bugged, "What are you doing!?"

Elsa looked up, unabashed, "Stripping. I don't want to ruin my clothes."

Anna felt her cheeks scorch, looking off to the side and pushing her hands into her pockets with hunched shoulders,"Oh."

The blonde returned her attention to her clothes, undoing her jeans to push them down her legs and kick them aside. Anna's heart started pounding noisily against her ribcage, putting up a tumultuous fight not to look.

That lasted until Elsa discarded her button up and was blinded by pulling the pristine white A-shirt underneath over her head.

"_Just a peek. Not gay."_

The redhead peered at the blonde from the corner of her eye.

"_Okay, maybe a little gay." _A nervous giggle slipped past her defenses, and she slapped a hand over her mouth as she turned her back to the woman, burning to the tips of her ears. She **really** hoped Elsa hadn't caught that. But...

"_But those legs, though." _Anna bit her lower lip, trying to cool her jets until the woman cleared her throat. The redhead cautiously turned back around to look at the woman.

Elsa had her arms wrapped over her chest, turned slightly to the side in a very small attempt to hide her modesty, more for Anna's sake than her own. "Are you ready?"

The younger woman hesitated, taking a deep breath as she noticed the dozens of scars just barely noticeable against the blonde's pale skin, some jagged and long, others circular and webbed, like the mark from the silver bullet. Suddenly the uncouth line of thought her mind had run away with vanished, and she came back down to Earth. She hugged herself, nodding to the woman.

With some hesitation, Elsa moved toward the girl, holding out a hand, palm up, out to her, "Don't be afraid."

"_She could kill you." _Kristoff's warning rang in Anna's head. Aqua eyes locked with sapphire, and the redhead slowly released the breath she'd been holding. Folding her left arm across her stomach as she extended the other, she gingerly slipped her hand into Elsa's until the tips of her fingers kissed the heel of the woman's hand. It was a display of trust; she wasn't afraid.

Elsa lowered her lids, breathing deeply. All at once the atmosphere around the pair changed. The blonde's eyes snapped open and she gasped sharply, irises a glowing hue of gold. She arched back rigidly, staggering away from Anna. With her jaw clenched, she bared her teeth, revealing jagged, carnivorous, and elongated canines, her body jerking roughly forward as the first of many breathless, piercing screams tore her throat and echoed through the air.

The jarring change caused the hairs along Anna's arms and at the back of her neck stand on end, suddenly yanking her hand away and taking a single step back, not having expected the agonized cries. Elsa was thrown to the ground, hands digging into the Earth as her muscles spasmed, the sound of bone crunching thrumming underneath. Unaware of herself, the redhead had stumbled several more feet until her back was pressed firmly against a large oak.

As Elsa trembled in the dirt, Anna took in the sight of her limbs elongating in jerky, snapping twitches, the shape of her ribcage and spine bulging and cracking. The girl suddenly felt sick, and had to cover her mouth to keep from up-chucking, shaking so hard her knees knocked together painfully.

Elsa rose to her knees, still appearing as if she were still screaming though no sound came forth. With her upper arms tucked in tightly against her body to the point of horrendous strain, she lifted her hands to stare at them as they reshaped, blood dripping from around her nails as the keratin dug deeper into her fingers, thickening, reforming into razor like claws. With jaw swollen and face misshapen, when the scream came again, it wasn't a scream, but a bloody gargle tainted with monstrous snarls, stretched thin in a way that gave the impression of multiple voices.

If Anna could have run, she probably would have. As it was, her motor skills were gone, having dropped to the ground, hands pressed firmly over her mouth to keep from crying out herself. Her horror mounted as pale wires of fur began to consume the previously bare woman.

Among all the fear came pity when the "monster" curled into a ball, covering it's head with it's gnarled paws and pressing it's face into the Earth and rotting leaves. At long last, the cries halted, and laying there in the dirt was a beast of enormous proportions, each ragged exhale accompanied by a rumbling grunt. After a moment, Anna cautiously lowered her hands from over her lips to whisper, voice rattling, "Elsa?"

With a flick of long, upright ears, Elsa slowly uncovered her head, golden eyes piercing with a predatory gleam. Her appearance wasn't exactly what Anna was expecting. The creature was, indeed, wolf-like. However, rather than looking like a hybrid of wolf and human, she seemed to be more like a common point between a great ape and a wolf, with long arms and hands. The legs were certainly dog-like, but short, proportionately. It was as if the anatomy could go in either direction, and as Elsa began to creep into a standing posture, she could see the woman was balanced on her knuckles; with hunching shoulders, she could be mistaken for a gorilla or a very large chimp (facial features and short tail aside). Even so, the beasts body had to be at least seven feet in length; a behemoth compared to the redhead.

The beast was at an angle to Anna, and had to peer past it's shoulder to look at the girl. The low hum of a growl thrummed through the ground until Anna could feel it's pulse through her entire body. She closed her eyes when she saw it whirl to face her, closing the distance between them with an incredible speed.

The redhead flinched, ducking back into the trunk of the tree and raising her hands to guard herself, eyes cinched shut and head turned away. Elsa stopped, baring down on the girl from above with bristled hackles and lip drawn back in a snarl. Anna didn't budge an inch, and after a moment, could actually **feel** a shift in the air as the beast relaxed. Another few seconds ticked by, and the girl nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt the warm breath of the animal huffing against her hair, sniffing in a thorough investigation.

The beast lowered and cocked it's head, ears flicking with curiosity reflecting in it's eyes. Anna lowered her hands slowly, worried that any sudden movement would cause the creature to bite. She had been taught not to look a wild animal in the eye when under such a threat, but couldn't help herself. Rather than reacting like an animal though, the creature tipped it's head the other way, oculars flickering blue. The monster sat, much like a dog.

With one fist clenched tightly at her collar bone, Anna carefully lifted her other hand to brush her fingers over the top of the beasts cranium. Elsa whined in response, closing her eyes and pushing her head forward and into the girls palm. Tears prickled at the redheads eyes as she smiled somberly, scratching a werewolf behind the ear as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Kristoff hadn't meant that a were didn't want another to see their "deep wound"; he meant that a were didn't want to cause a deep wound for another. And now? Elsa and Anna were both scarred souls.


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: Little more than halfway there. Rating goes up to 'M' next chapter (chapter eight). I find it a bit hard to believe that I have more than 30 follows already; just, wow. Thanks, guys.

Disclaimer: Frozen and it's characters are copyright to Disney

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Chapter VII: Soylent Green

The trek home was considerably slower. Elsa seemed to ache, her gate smaller, eyes tired. Having seen what she had burned away Anna's impatience, and she held to the blonde's meandering pace.

What the redhead had hoped would turn out to be neat and interesting turned out to be... well, something. Something terrible. She pondered on the agony of the change. If seeing it had cut to her core, what was it like to live it? The girl was relatively certain that a body wasn't meant to be broken like that; reason told her that the blonde should have been killed by the shift. She tilted her head slightly to peer up at Elsa from the corner of her eye.

Anna wanted to ask a million questions, and none. On some level she didn't want to know any more, didn't want to go any deeper into this horrifying new world. Her very nature defied that logic, however. Before she could stop herself, she broke the silence, "Are you-" she paused, looking more directly at the taller woman, "are you okay?"

Elsa sighed, glancing forlornly at the girl walking next to her, "I'm fine. Just tired." The sound of the blonde's stomach complaining pulled Anna's attention downward, "And hungry."

Their first meeting played through Anna's mind briefly. _"-have you for lunch some time." _The girl stopped in her tracks, gulping nervously, eyes wide.

Elsa halted when she realized Anna was no longer at her side, looking over her shoulder with a wily smirk, seeming to read the redheads mind, "Don't worry. I don't eat human."

The girl released a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding, posture relaxing when the blonde turned and began to walk again, "They taste terrible, anyway."

Implying. _"Oh my god," _Anna thought with a queasy churn of her gut, _"Has she eaten people before?" _She honestly couldn't tell of Elsa was joking or not, and lingered behind for a while before the loud snap of a branch behind her caused her to jump and dash after the woman.

She must have decided that Elsa was kidding, because she fell into step with the blonde again, taking hold of her arm as she glanced about in the dark. Elsa peeked down at the girl with small, smug smile, "Scared of old man Jenkins coming to get you in his spooky mask, scooby?"

Anna groaned, taking the opportunity of the blonde not pulling away to link her arm with the other woman. And squeeze her bicep; but who was there to notice? "**Not** funny. These woods are Creepsville, even in the day."

Elsa arched a delicate brow, smile growing, "Mmhmm, yes," she agreed, the canter of her voice teasing, "You never know what could be lurking out there, waiting to pounce on an innocent girl accompanied by a **monster**."

Anna shot the woman a sour expression, and Elsa turned her head to look away, "Do you really think I'd let anything happen to you?" Her tone was slightly offended, partly feigned, partly not.

That gave the redhead some pause. Nibbling at her lower lip thoughtfully, she glanced ahead, then back up to the blonde, cheeks flushed (_"For the millionth time. Am I like, twelve?"_), "I didn't think about it that way. I guess not. You're kind of like a really big guard do-"

Elsa halted rigidly for a second, stating in a low voice as she bristled at the statement, "Don't use that word." The woman inhaled slowly, calming herself, "Please."

Anna pursed her lips, "Sorry." She thought Elsa might pull free from her grasp, but she didn't. After a moment of quiet, they began walking again, approaching the treeline to the Bjorgman property.

The smell of meat being grilled assaulted Elsa's senses and her pace picked up, her stomach protesting it's emptiness noisily. When the woman's strides were too long for Anna to keep up though, she considerately slowed back down. "So hungry," the blonde muttered, her mouth watering.

Deciding it was better to let Elsa get to her meal than force the woman to hold back for her sake, she nudged Elsa's shoulder with her own, releasing her arm and taking off in a sprint toward the house, "Race ya!"

Elsa staggered a bit and paused, a confident smirk creeping across her features when it dawned on her what had just taken place. A challenge! As she counted quietly to five "Mississippi", she shifted into position to take off after the girl; wouldn't be any fun if she didn't have a head start.

Anna was half way to the house when Elsa dashed past her, nearly blowing the girl off her feet. Her posture was that of a professional athlete, but the **speed**. She was all but a blur as she left Anna in the dust, skidding to a halt at the foot of the steps a good forty feet ahead of the girl.

As the redhead slowed to a jog, gasping for breath, she noticed that, at the very least, Elsa was breathless too. She was also wonderfully flushed, the rosy hue standing out against her pale skin even in the dull light of the sky. Anna's eyes fell to slightly parted lips, then the pulse in the blonde's neck, tracing the color to the rising and falling of her chest. Disheveled and panting, she looked incredibly, _"__**Hot**__." _No wait, that wasn't right._ "__**Human. **__She looks very human."_

The redhead worried her lower lip as she eyed the woman up and down again, heart hammering with reckless abandon. Her already warm cheeks scorched further as she began to fiddle with her hands, kicking the toe of her shoe into the dust. Elsa was watching her with an intensely predatory glint in her eyes that made Anna shiver. There was still an underlying fear that still prickled at the girls senses but at the same time, the effect had become warped. Who the Hell was she trying to kid?

She was getting _"kind of... turned on"_ by the penetrating stare of the older woman. Anna pressed her thighs together, trying to work up the nerve to pounce. Before she could rally her courage, Elsa turned and bounced up the steps, leading Anna's gaze to drop to her backside.

"Kristoff is waiting," she squawked, the words clipped and short, without looking back.

The redhead stared at the blonde's butt until she disappeared inside, the spell of hypnosis ending as the realization gradually dawned on her of what had just occurred. Her thoughts had been absolutely salacious. Her eyes widened when it crossed her mind that she had very nearly attacked the woman. With her mouth. More awkward still was the prospect of sitting through dinner with Elsa **and** her cousin, all hot and bothered.

She spent an extra minute trying to give herself a mental cold shower before walking into the house and crossing the living room to the back door, where she slid the glass open and stepped out back. Krisoff was standing at the end of the long rear deck in front of a large grill, flipping steaks. Upon hearing the door open, he turned happily as if to greet her, but stopped short the second her feet hit the wood. The man went slack-jawed, staring at Anna bug-eyed. He threw his gaze from Anna to Elsa, who was studiously focused on cutting up her steak and shoveling bites down her gullet, and back again.

He wanted to say something, she could tell. He **knew**. _"Oh my gosh, please don't say anything- please don't say anything-" _she chanted the mantra in her head zealously.

Kristoff seemed to know that it wasn't a subject one breached openly, so he settled for looking back to the grill, coughing into his fist and asking, "So, how was it?"

Anna's mind ran in several directions with that question. "Mm, fine. Interesting." Her gaze flicked to Elsa, and his followed.

He hesitated. "Uhh," a beat, "Yeah. Well, why don't you grab a plate and help yourself?" He motioned to the patio table Elsa was seated at, where she was digging into her second steak, a dish holding a pile of already finished ones sitting in the setter of it. With his attention off of her, Anna watched the blonde woman for a few seconds.

When Elsa looked up to meet her eyes, Anna froze. If Kristoff knew...

"_Oh, crap." _That meant Elsa knew too. Suddenly the situation was that much more mortifying. "Ahh, you know, I'm actually not that hungry. I think I'm just gonna crash so I can get home early tomorrow." The redhead didn't wait for a reply, moving quickly back into the house and toward Elsa's bedroom.

Kristoff turned to say goodnight, but she was gone. Instead, he looked to Elsa, who shrugged flippantly as if she hadn't a clue.

It wasn't until after she flicked out the flights and threw herself under the covers that she noted that she hadn't thought the idea through. The pillow was saturated with the scent of Elsa's shampoo. Anna closed her eyes, imagination taking flight again. Elsa. Elsa's blinding smile. Elsa's body, lean and lithe with taut wires of muscle coursing her body under the moonlight. Elsa's stare. Elsa's red cheeks and heaving chest.

Anna shuddered violently, squirming on the mattress, tossing and turning in an attempt to get comfortable. It had been some time since she felt **the urge**, as it were. Of course it would come on when she was away from home, in a strangers bed. The girl sighed heavily. She would have to settle for letting her dreams take the wheel.

Elsa crept in some time later, though Anna was fast asleep. Rather than taking a position by the head or foot of the bed, she crouched to her hands and knees and crawled to the edge of the mattress. There, the blonde paused to study the redhead in silence. When the girl groaned and rolled to her other side, Elsa sighed softly, shaking her head and laying on her side, back turned to her. She slept next to Anna on the floor that night.

Daylight had just pierced the sky when the redhead awoke. She was so warm, felt like she was floating. Indeed, her dreams had continued to run with her train of thought from the night previous. _"Oh, yes," _she groaned internally. It was only when she inhaled deeply and got a tickle to her nose that she realized she was perched precariously at the edge of the bed with an arm wrapped across the front of the sprawled blonde's shoulders, face buried in her hair.

No wonder her libido had raged so thoroughly in her sleep. She had been clinging to the very subject of her lascivious dreams. When lusty thoughts surfaced again, it prompted the girl to remove her arm from the still slumbering woman and scoot away as gingerly as humanly possible.

She **needed** to get home so she could get this out of her system. Anna opted that it was best to let Elsa sleep in. She deserved it. However, before she slipped off the mattress and snuck her way to the door, she took a chance and leaned over to lay a quick peck on the blonde's cheek, then gathered her shoes and disappeared into the hall.

Anna nearly ran into Kristoff in the entry way as he came in. He paused in the door, blocking her exit as he took a sip of his coffee. He peered at her over the rim of his cup, slurping at the dark liquid. "Leaving already?" he inquired awkwardly.

The redhead shifted her weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably, "Yeah, I better get back. People to do, places to thing." A pause, and the man cracked a grin, "People to places, things to see." Another beat. Anna cursed inwardly. "Things to do, people to see."

Kristoff grinned, chuckling and shaking his head as he stepped out of the way, "Elsa will be pissed when she finds out you left without saying goodbye, ya know."

"I'll call."

The burly man arched a brow, "She doesn't have a phone."

Uneasy silence.

"Uh, right, what about you?"

He cackled again, pulling a pen from his pocket and taking her hand to write down his number, "Send me a text later so I know it's you. Then I can just let Elsa pick it up when you ring."

Anna looked down at the smudgy ink on her palm, "Will do." The girl worked her jaw, glancing away from the man before looking back up at him with a genuine smile, "Thanks for... I dunno. But thanks."

With a lilt of his mug, Kristoff motioned to the door, "Better go before she wakes up."

Anna spun on her heel and headed out the door for her truck, but was intercepted by Sven. She spent a moment placating the beast, patting his head and assuring him she would return to visit him soon before climbing into her vehicle and heading home.


	9. Chapter 8

A/N: I've said it twice now, but here's one last warning. Content turns to 'M' here.

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright to Disney

* * *

Chapter VIII: "... Or else it gets the hose again."

When she pulled into her driveway, Anna all but sprinted from her truck into the house. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so much sexual tension. She discarded her coat by the front door and headed up the stairs, losing her t-shirt, shoes and socks in the hall. Kicking the bathroom door shut behind her, she fumbled in an attempt to simultaneously undo her pants and adjust the temperature of the water.

She dropped her jeans and panties in one fell swoop, tongue poking out from the corner of her lips as she reached behind her to release the clasp of her bra. Tossing the garment aside with one hand, she lifted the stopper on the faucet with the other, and the shower came on.

Anna leapt into the stream and slung the curtain shut, only giving herself a moment to soak before hastily setting her hands on her hips, squeezing firmly and allowing her palms to glide upward over her flanks and ribcage. Sucking her teeth, she shut her eyes, heart rate beginning to pick up the pace. With her hands gliding back down her water-slick sides, she hesitated to call up the thought of Elsa, but the worry was cast aside when she trailed her fingertips up her lightly-toned abdomen; now it was Elsa touching her.

The redhead bit her lower lip with unusual force when she groped at her breasts, shuddering with want as she tried to guess at what it might be like for the blonde's mouth to be at her neck, devouring her. A needy whimper slipped from her throat as her imagination ran away on her again, careening out of control. In her minds eye, Elsa pushed her back against the wall, pinning her bodily, so she turned and pressed her back against the tiles, their cold temperature causing her to arch into her palms.

Anna pawed at her chest a bit more roughly, tweaking her nipples with a hiss between her teeth. "Elsa," she pleaded breathily to the humid air, "touch... please..." She hiccuped a gasp as she lowered one hand to drag her nails along her thigh and hip. Tilting her head back, she finally allowed for the exploratory hand to cup her sex, sighing in relief as a digit slipped between her folds, hips rocking forward against her palm.

"_Sweet friction, at last!"_

Anna's blood was boiling, skin flushed pink from her chest to her ears. She was so freakin' **hot** and smothered, and all she could think of Elsa's naked form from the night before, curvaceous, lean, and pale. The mental image of _"flawlessly"_ sculpted pelvic and abdominal muscles sprung to her mind, followed by the woman's toned thighs. She wouldn't mind those thighs hugging her head.

The redhead groaned, taking the plunge and arching her back from the wall, "Elsa!"

"_So close. Soclose, soclose. Come on."_

And then the sound of the front door slamming shut carried to the bathroom, barely audible over the shower. Anna froze.

"_No."_

"Anna?" Olaf's voice echoed up the hall from the foot of the stairs.

"Fffffffffffffff-"

From the end of the hall, Olaf heard a roar of a scream, Anna's voice echoing with fury. The man flinched.

"**FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!**"

The magic was gone. Anna sighed bitterly. It was going to be a **long** day.

Flipping the water to cold, she washed up in a hurry, leaving Olaf awkwardly standing in the living room, peeking up the corridor. When she emerged, wrapped in a towel, he opened his mouth to speak, but was halted by the girl holding up a hand to silence him and walking in the direction of her room. It took several more minutes for her to resurface, looking slightly less grumpy than before. Only slightly.

Anna walked down past Olaf, running a brush through her hair, "Okay, what's up?"

The dark haired man stared at the redhead's back, agape, "What do you mean, 'what's up'? You haven't answered your phone in a week!"

The girl's step faltered, the amount of time she had been absent sinking in. It certainly hadn't seemed that long. Of course, for a good portion of it, she'd been certifiably loony, so who was she to judge how many days had passed?

When she didn't say anything, Olaf closed the few steps between them to shake her by the shoulders, eyeing her carefully for any signs of harm, "Where **were** you?"

Upon being shaken, Anna shook her head as if clearing out cobwebs, "Oh. I was with El-" The redhead abruptly stopped, sucking her teeth. Her best friend's eyes grew wide. Could she tell Olaf about what had happened? Probably better not to, but still. Now he'd get the wrong-

"Elsa? You were with **Elsa**?" He gasped as if the news were controversial, "The woman you called 'creepy' when they invited us to lunch?"

The redhead looked away from him as she headed for the dining room, resuming brushing her hair. She didn't want to outright lie to him. "Yeah, I was." she answered hesitantly.

There was a beat of silence, and Anna dreaded to look the man in the eye. Again, her nature betrayed herself, and she couldn't help looking. The man was grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "Sooooo," he slipped his hands into his pockets as he rocked on his heels, watching the girl take a seat at the table, "You're into creepy now?"

"_God**damnit. **-The wrong idea,"_ she finished the thought with some delay. She knew he was going to take it that way, and she couldn't tell him otherwise. "Don't be stupid," she tipped her chair back on it's rear legs, tossing her brush onto the table, "I'm not gay. She and Kristoff are just nice, that's all. I needed a break from monotony."

Olaf arched a brow, expression incredulous, removing his hands from his pockets to cross his arms over his chest. Anna looked at anything **but** Olaf, tucking her hands behind her head in an overcompensating manor, trying to prove she was aloof about the subject. If the burning in her face was any indication, however, she was already caught.

Her friend simply continued to stare at her suspiciously and she squirmed uncomfortably under his close scrutiny.

"Okay, so maybe I'm a little jealous of her."

Olaf tilted his head to turn his ear toward her, showing he was listening.

"She's um," Anna pursed her lips, letting her chair drop back onto four legs and laying her head on the table, peering at him past her arm as she stretched them out in front of her, "Kinda cool, actually. And interesting." A beat. "And really ridiculously good looking." Her gaze turned away thoughtfully.

Olaf's smug smile returned and he leaned back a bit, rocking on his heels again, "Yeaaah, that's not jealousy."

"Shut. **Up!**"

"Very convincing argument."

Anna's head snapped up off the table and she scowled at him. "Stop it, I'm not-"

"First of all, what is your **aversion** to the idea of being gay?" The man was taking some personal offense. "Second of all, I didn't say you are. But it's pretty obvious that you like Els-"

"Oh my God! Don't freakin' say it!" Anna threw her hands up in an agitated gesture, shooting up from her seat as she tried to command away the furious blush that had grown on her face; half out of embarrassment, half out of anger.

Olaf paused for a moment. The redhead heaved a sigh and flopped back into her seat. Finally, her friend relented and moved to take a seat in the chair adjacent to Anna, "Fine, I'll let it go."

"Thank you," Anna mumbled without full sincerity.

"Anyways, the general store called. They've got our monthly, and we need to pick it up soon, or they'll give it away."

The girl relaxed a bit, looking a little less miffed, "That time already?"

Olaf rolled his eyes, smiling in a much more friendly manner than before, "You ask me that every month. Weather says that a heat wave is rolling in tomorrow though."

"Moving bails of hay in the middle of a scorcher. Peachy."

"Don't bitch, you need the exercise after a week of impromptu vacationing."

With a shake of her head, Anna objected, "Look, I need a day to readjust. Day after tomorrow?"

Her best friend eyed her again. "Well," he mulled it over, "Alright, but if they give away our stuff, you have to do the long drive to get what we need."

Anna agreed, and Olaf chastised her once more for neglecting to answer her phone before leaving. So, Anna wanted to be difficult? That was fine. Olaf could find a way to work with that, and an extra day just gave him more time to come up with a plan.

For the remainder of the day, Anna cleaned up around the house, throwing out any bad food from the fridge, running a load of laundry, and mopping the floors. She needed a distraction to take her mind off of the last twenty-four hours. Her poor brain could only handle so much stress, after all, and the mindless chores allowed her to air out her thoughts, which she hoped would enable her to more rationally think the situation over the next day; and disregard her sexual frustration, which was still pestering her.

By eight in the evening she was laid out on the couch, catching a nap as the TV chattered quietly in the background. Once again, she had failed to think things through, and on came the dreams. Teeth. Sharp teeth.

"_Oh." _

It was Elsa. Anna had heard the phrase "wolfish" to describe a look before but had never seen it herself, but there it was. Elsa smirking. Wolfishly. The redhead could feel her heart pounding. She wasn't sure what surface she was perched on, but Elsa looked tall and sharp standing over her. Golden eyes smoldered with lust, and Anna bit her lip (a habit that seemed to form in the presence of the woman), torn between fear and arousal.

And then those pearly whites were scraping at her thigh, Elsa kneeling between the girls knees with a firm grip on either ankle to hold her still.

"_Danger!Danger!Danger!"_ the primitive part of her brain screamed.

Anna slid a hand into Elsa's platinum blonde locks and tugged firmly. Elsa groaned, opening her mouth to reveal the jagged canines of the monster, rivulets of blood dripping from them.

"_Soclose-closeclose-soclose!"_ Anna's hormones raged in contrast to her instinctual terror.

Elsa bit down on her thigh just below where it joined her hip, teeth shearing into flesh.

Anna gasped, eyes snapping open, freezing when she realized she was laying passed out on the sofa. She was right on the edge. The girl exhaled slowly, making another futile attempt to calm her irate libido.

"_This is gonna be a lot harder than I thought."_

Climbing into bed to sleep it off only served to worsen the issue, the dream repeating with small variations. She attempted to do as she planned the next day and ponder on what she had learned over the last week, but at every turn, images of Elsa sprung to mind. Lewd images. Plus, Olaf was right about the heat wave. It was stifling. By the time "the day after tomorrow" rolled around, Anna was downright irritable.

She waited for her best friend on the front porch early in the morning, clutching a thermos of coffee and looking every bit as petulant as she felt. One would think her mood couldn't get much more sour.

That was until she realized, when Olaf was pulling up in his large flatbed that rattled and groaned, that somebody was in the passenger side, where she usually sat.

"_Is that... Kristoff?"_

Slowly, her eyes widened. Yes. It was Kristoff.

"_No. He wouldn't."_

From around the back of the cab, Elsa leaned out of the bed of the truck and waved casually to the redhead.

Yes, actually. He would.

The man had recruited the cousins to help them load and unload hay.

Anna saw red.


	10. Chapter 9

A/N: Another quick warning. More salacious content in this chapter.

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright to Disney

* * *

Chapter IX: "It puts the lotion on it's skin."

If looks could kill, Olaf would have expired behind the wheel of his truck. Anna was fuming, glaring lividly at the man. He swallowed hard, opting not to step out of the vehicle due to the hazard of being throttled.

He pulled to a stop and turned the flatbed off, quickly slapping the lock on the drivers side door down. Kristoff eyed him, worried by the other mans actions.

Anna was storming toward them now, expression dark. One look at the girl, and the blond man hastily locked his own door, Olaf's paranoia spreading to him. The redhead was close now, ten feet out from the hood of the truck. Olaf sank into his seat, the men watching with trepidation.

The day was saved just as Anna was about to reach the drivers door, by Elsa hopping effortlessly over the side of the bed, revealing-

"_Oh, sweet merciful-" _Anna screeched to a halt, her mind sputtering. Her mouth went dry. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight of the bombshell in quite short cut-offs. All of a sudden the heat was that much more smothering. Could her heart **actually** beat it's way through her chest? Or hop right out of her mouth? Because she could feel it's wild pulse in her tongue. When she managed to tear her eyes from Elsa's legs, they hit the slip of skin visible from where the woman's camisole didn't quite reach the hem of her Daisy Dukes.

She wasn't sure how long she had been staring, but it must have been at least a full minute, because Olaf finally cracked his window and peeped out, "Kristoff called shotgun. You gotta ride in back."

When Anna didn't respond, Elsa quirked a delicate brow and glanced to Olaf, who had already rolled his window back up. The woman felt suspiciously like she had missed something.

Setting her hands on her hips, pushing back the open sides of the blue-plaid button up she had for a top layer, she leaned just slightly to the right and down, intercepting the redheads line of sight with her eyes. "Earth to Anna?"

The girl blinked a few times rapidly.

"You okay?"

Anna startled, jumping a bit, an anxious giggle slipping past her lips before a string of babble tumbled out after it, "Yep. Yeah. Definitely. I'm **great. **You're hot today. **It's** hot today. The weather." A pause, "Is hot."

The redhead glanced to Olaf when he let loose the loudest howl of laughter she'd ever heard from the man, grinning from ear to ear and slapping his knee. Kristoff was trying to smother a grin of his own, looking every which way to avoid eye contact with the girl.

When Anna looked back to Elsa, it was evident that she had no idea how to respond to such a Freudian slip. She noticed the taller woman's cheeks were a little pink too, now that she wasn't gawking over her body. In fact, the way she turned her gaze away and shuffled her feet, hands tucked behind her back: _"Oh no."_

A new torrent of lascivious thoughts bubbled up in Anna's mind. Up until this point, her brain had only conjured up images that featured Elsa "on top", dominant, but if that bashful reaction was her response to a little admiration to her appearance... now Anna was considering pouncing the woman and taking advantage of that fact.

Olaf laid on the horn, and the redhead was shaken from the slippery slope by Elsa climbing back into the flatbed, turning to Anna. "Come on."

She was rooted to the spot. How did she move her legs again? It wouldn't come to her. Elsa's brow furrowed and she begged her mind to form words, but it just wouldn't.

"You're worried about a little ride in the back of a truck?"

"_Oh Christ, please stop."_ She pleaded with her brain as it ran away with the question.

When Anna didn't answer, the woman sighed with exaggerated disapproval, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear before bending down, one hand on the sidewall of the bed, the other outstretched to her. "Don't worry about it. I'll be back here too."

Anna's stomach did a happy flip-flop as the words fogged over the intense urges that had been overwhelming her for days, prompting her to close the distance between herself and the truck, reaching out and letting her hand fall into Elsa's. The blonde gripped firmly and helped hoist the girl in as she stepped up on the tire. Once she was standing on the flatbed, Anna looked up to meet Elsa's eyes, squeezing the hand still clutching hers.

They stood that way for a moment, just... quiet. Then Elsa let go and sat with her back against the cab, scooting over to make room for the redhead. Anna sat close enough that their shoulders could touch.

"Finally!" the duo heard Olaf cry from the front seat as he turned on the ignition and began to pull out of the drive, rolling towards town. The ride was turbulent. Anna could live with that as long as it was an excuse to keep bumping against Elsa.

Their arrival called for Elsa to peek around the cab, giving Olaf a look of skepticism when he opened the door and stepped out, "Are you sure this thing is legal to drive, Olaf? It seems like less of a vehicle and more of a death trap, or dying animal."

"Uhh," Olaf hesitated before motioning over his shoulder with his thumb at the general store, "I better go let them know we're here. Gonna be a busy day!" The dark hair man spun on his heel and trotted into the shop, leaving Elsa to snicker behind his back. Kristoff cackled. Anna watched Elsa, eyeing the sly smile that crept across her features. Olaf reappeared a moment later and waved for the trio to follow him around the building to the back.

It was as they were rounding the corner that Anna got the sense that she was being watched. She stopped, letting the others pass her as she looked up and down the street. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The fine hairs along the back of her neck stood on end, only for her to be interrupted by Elsa pausing a few feet ahead to glance back at her, "Anna?"

Anna turned back to face the blonde, "Hmm?" She started walking after Olaf again.

Elsa waited for her to catch up, then fell into step with her, "Something bothering you?" Worry reflected in her countenance.

Anna smiled, playing coy, "You sure are being a worrywart today."

Elsa scoffed, turning her head away to hide the smirk that tugged at her lips. When the pair found Olaf and Kristoff behind the store, the two were looking a little stiff and tense. Anna and Elsa shared a look before staring back to the guys.

Olaf cleared his throat, "Right, so these," he waved an arm, motioning to four large stacks of hay bails, "Go with us. We'll need to make two trips, one to my place, one to Anna's."

Kristoff seemed to relax, giving the darker haired man a tight nod, "Fine with me."

The women made no objections, and the four began to load up the flatbed. It took less time than usual with two extra pairs of hands, and even became fun when Elsa and Kristoff turned competitive, trying to see who could stack more blocks before the bed was full. Which of course, lead to the wily Elsa tripping her cousin more than a few times.

As they were climbing back into the truck Kristoff whined at his elder, "You're a cheater!"

Elsa looked him straight in the eye before climbing into the bed, not missing a beat, "Always cheat, Kristoff." A confident smirk and the lifting of her brow made the man snort, getting into the passenger side of the cab. Anna nibbled at her lip, observing intently.

The ride back to Olaf's ranch was more precarious, with the redhead and the blonde perched atop the pile of bails. Anna decided to play it up, exploiting the fact that Elsa thought she was nervous about the ride to hold onto her arm.

The heat of the day was crawling toward it's peak when they finally began to unload. Since Kristoff and Elsa could make getting the bails to the loft easy, Anna convinced Olaf to stack the hay outside the barn door, where Anna would take them in to be put away. Then, when Olaf was out of sight, Anna would nod to Elsa from the door, and Elsa would literally **toss** the bail up to Kristoff. About half way through, they were all working up a sweat, and the older woman tied up her hair into a messy bun. The redhead spent an inordinate amount of time staring at the back of the blonde's neck after that.

"_Does it count as assault if my weapon of choice is my mouth?" _

They finally finished with Olaf's stock of feed around noon, and he served up tea and sandwiches. It wasn't a long break, but all four had been ravenous, and were much more willing to get back to work on a full stomach.

This time, when they were loading up Anna's share, Kristoff managed to trip Elsa. Once. He lost their little competition anyways.

"At least you tried to cheat this time," Elsa praised his attempts.

For Anna, it was getting more difficult to ignore her libido as it struggled for freedom. With the heat of the day at it's height, Esla's cheeks were flushed, her skin glistened, and her hair was slightly awry. Not to mention, there was a lot of flexing going on with her throwing fifty pound blocks of feed up to the loft. The group was close to finishing up as the sun began to set. With the last few bails, Olaf complained about his back and asked Kristoff to give him a hand. Once the last block was outside the door, he slung an arm around the bigger man's shoulders in a friendly manner, "Hey man, we should go for a beer run."

Kristoff eyed Olaf warily. "What about Elsa and Anna?"

"Oh, we won't be getting **that** much, we don't need their help."

The blond considered two possibilities; Olaf was rude or up to something. It was hard to tell with how casual the guy was. Then again, maybe he was just an airhead.

The shorter of the two wiggled his eyebrows, "C'mon, beeeer ruuuun."

Kristoff relented with a sigh, "Okay, fine, I guess they can handle the last of it on their own."

"Yes!" Olaf pumped his arm triumphantly and quickly stuck his head in the door, "Makin' a beer run, be back!"

The words were practically one syllable, and with Anna focused on Elsa climbing back down the ladder to the loft, she absentmindedly gave her friend an indistinct, "Mmkay." Olaf didn't hear it. He was long gone.

It wasn't until Elsa's feet hit the floor of the barn and she was rubbing the rolled up sleeve of her button up over her forehead that it dawned on Anna what had just happened. She had fallen right into Olaf's trap.

She was alone.

With Elsa.

She'd **kill** him for this.

Outside the barn, crickets chirped noisily, but Anna zoned in on the slight pant in Elsa's breath that made her chest rise and fall. Her pale cheeks were flushed, platinum blonde locks a mess. The redhead felt the flutter of butterflies in her stomach, heart kicking into a jackhammers pace. The taller woman looked to her right, blue eyes locking with aqua. Elsa's hands remained on the outer supports of the ladder, and she gripped them tighter. Anna tensed.

Elsa opened her mouth to speak, but before she could even let the girls name slip free, she was cut off from all thought, Anna pouncing on her with all the ferocity and passion that she had held back from that moment outside the blonde's house where she had first felt that spark. The redheads lips crashed against hers, and the woman growled, the tone feral as she turned, stepped into the girl, and backed her up against the nearest wall. Anna dug her fingers into Elsa's hair and Elsa pressed against her, pinning her as she parted from the redheads lips just enough to let out a quiet groan.

The younger woman nipped at the blonde's lower lip when given the opportunity, allowing her head to lilt back and thump against the wood behind her when Elsa's hands were suddenly everywhere at once, pawing, groping, fumbling. At present, it didn't matter that the older woman didn't seem to be too sure of what she was up to. Anna grinned to herself, lowering her grip to hold the backs of Elsa's grasping fingers. Elsa looked confused for about half a second until she realized the redhead was guiding her hands under her black tank top, gaze dropping to the girl's freckled shoulder before she attacked the exposed skin with her mouth.

Anna trembled and pressed Elsa's palms against her breasts, sucking her teeth when the blonde gave her neck a careful love-bite. This wasn't enough, damnit! The redhead encouraged Elsa to continue her needy pawing before releasing her hands and arching her back, quickly slipping her arms behind herself to undo her bra. The blonde felt the fabric loosen in her hands and took the cue, fingers slipping beneath, taking a moment to suck at the outer edge of the girls collar bone to leave an angry red mark behind.

When Elsa pulled back, her eyes were like molten gold, a pitch ring around her outer irises. Anna had never seen them this close before. They were striking. That foreign cocktail of fear and arousal coursed through her, renewed by the very real danger factor she was presently aware of; being so close to Elsa. She didn't know what was causing it, but she didn't have the willpower to fight it. She lunged again for the older woman's lips, and Elsa met her half way, forcing a knee between the redheads legs. Anna rolled her hips to meet the blonde's firm thigh, taking hold of one of her wrists with both hands and once again guiding it, to the edge of her athletic shorts, and under the elastic waistband.

Elsa withdrew slightly once her hand was fully submerged beneath the red cloth, looking Anna in the eye with a very serious expression. Anna had to choke back a panic attack, and there was a small, awkward lull in the passion. "Anna. Where are your panties?" she asked with stern sobriety.

The redhead giggled and closed her eyes, tilting her head back and letting her nerves calm. Elsa tipped her head curiously and watched the girl smile with great contentment. Anna wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders and rested her forehead against her collarbone until her panic subsided. Then, pulling Elsa in close again, she stood up on her tiptoes to press her lips against the woman's ear and murmur, "You're not the only one with special powers. I can see the future." A cocky bluff, but it worked.

A shiver raced down the blonde's spine, and she slipped her hand down until her fingers brushed Anna's groin. "I believe it," Elsa breathed, voice husky, wanton with lust. Anna's guiding hand followed and rested atop of the older woman's, leading her touch to all the right places. Wet was too inadequate a word but neither woman sought any alternatives.

"Elsa," the redhead sighed in relief, grinding into the woman's palm. Elsa buried her face in the crook of Anna's neck, whimpering almost imperceptibly. The blonde wanted Anna so badly. She didn't know what she'd do with her once she had her, but she would take her, regardless.

The shorter woman couldn't be bothered with patience. She needed it. **Now**.

"_More!"_ her hormones screamed.

"In," she begged, pride going out the window with it's buddies, poise and control, "please."

Elsa happily obliged and Anna squirmed and writhed. Oh, but those fingers were long, and slender, and warm. Unsure of where to go from there, Elsa gently pinched Anna's nipple with the hand still resting comfortably beneath her top. The redhead hummed pleasantly, then used her free hand to gingerly tug at platinum blonde locks, "Hey, Elsa."

Elsa looked up dazedly into pools of aqua, cheeks and ears scorched pink, "Mnn?"

Anna released the woman's hair to hold up two fingers, crooking them at her, "Go like this," she said in a tone to tempt curiosity. Her smile was smug, having regained just a bit of composure. It would be worth it to delay the inevitable for just a few seconds.

The blonde obeyed and the reaction it elicited flipped her stomach jovially. Anna let out a cry caught somewhere between a laugh and shock. Elsa did it again, slower this time, and the girl released Elsa's hand, lifting from her shorts to bite the knuckle of her forefinger, her eyes cinching shut. She bucked her hips as her other hand fell to the blonde's shoulder, grasping at the fabric of her shirt desperately.

Elsa removed her hand from under the girls shirt to brace herself against the wall, unsure of exactly what she was seeking for herself. She wanted to feel more of Anna, but through their clothes, rubbing up against her wasn't cutting it. In frustration, Elsa worked the girl harder, falling into a rhythm that the redhead followed with vigor, near riding the woman's thigh.

"Elsa! Don't stop!" The girl gasped for breath, Elsa feeling her hunger mount as she watched the redhead writhe under her control. She encircled both arms around the blonde's neck, clutching her tightly as she shivered and rode out the orgasm she had been dying for. When the last shock-waves died down, Anna slumped slightly against Elsa, loosening her hold to let the woman lift her head.

She was completely disheveled and flustered, looking unsure. Anna's self-assured simper returned as she looked Elsa in the eye, resting her forehead against the other woman's. "Step back," she rasped, pushing against the blonde to get her going.

If Anna said "jump", Elsa would be in the air before she could ask "how high?" So, she backpedaled until she bumped into the ladder, quickly glancing over her shoulder, then down to the salacious stare of the redhead; that was a quick recovery. Anna delicately slipped her fingers under the shoulders of Elsa's button up, easing the fabric down over the blonde's arms dangling limply at her sides, too dumbstruck to speak, much less act. She didn't know what she was supposed to do.

Anna seemed to know that intuitively, and smiled knowingly. "Hold on."

Elsa raised her hands to grasp the bracers behind her, breath catching in her throat as Anna slipped to her knees, refusing to break eye contact, beginning to unfasten the woman's short-shorts.

"_Fuck it,"_ she told herself. If she was gay, she was gay, but she wanted Elsa more than she'd ever wanted **anyone**. And here she was, watching with intense fascination as Anna yanked the denim down around her ankles to bunch over her sneakers. She would kick herself, maybe even for the rest of her life, if she let this opportunity slip through her fingers. Olaf must have known that.

She made an addendum to her list of "things to-do" somewhere in the back of her mind. **Don't** kill Olaf. Buy him expensive liquor instead.

Elsa pressed her thighs together, glancing away from Anna though she didn't release her hold on the ladders' frame. The flush in her face grew darker, and the redhead almost teased her about her own lack of undergarments, but decided against it, instead leaning in to plant a small kiss on the woman's hip. The blonde sighed, eyes slipping closed. Anna gently scraped her teeth over the junction between Elsa's hip and thigh, and Elsa tensed, shivering. "Um, Anna," she began to stammer.

Anna ignored the fact that she was being addressed, and took hold of Elsa's ankle, "Shoes off. I need room."

The blonde complied, but with a questioning look, standing on one foot as the girl slid the other out of it's sneaker, tugging the denim off after it. Anna paused. _"Close enough."_

The redhead wiggled in close, snug against Elsa's supporting leg as she lifted the other to rest over her shoulder. With one last glance up at a befuddled looking Elsa, she warned her again, "Don't forget. **Hold on**." Giving the older woman no time to prepare, she dove right in. She didn't know what the Hell she was doing, but she wouldn't let that obstacle dissuade her.

It apparently didn't matter much anyways. Elsa almost dropped herself in the first instance, and nearly snapped the ladder the next, eyes closing tightly when Anna probed at her sex with an enthusiastic tongue. Whatever the woman had been expecting, it hadn't been **that**.

"Anna!" The cry was half out of surprise, half out of the inability for anything other than the redhead currently making her feel phenomenal to cross her mind. Anna slipped her arms under Elsa's thighs, hugging them and pulling the blonde's pelvis toward her waiting mouth.

The rosy tint in the blondes cheeks grew intense, heaving for air, trying not to twist and squirm in a way that might hurt the girl. Elsa had read about the technical aspects of sex and anatomy in her studies at the caern, but she had never heard about **this** before. Anna was kissing her most intimate areas and it was blowing her mind. The blonde mewled at the very idea.

"Anna. Anna. Anna." It became like a chant as her pleasure escalated, a deep well of heat ready to blow inside of her.

Instinct took over and Elsa rocked her hips, reaching for that last little bit of friction. Anna was turned on to the point of discomfort again, and the heat of the air and being perched between Elsa's legs was stifling. In spite of that, the redhead was thoroughly enjoying the cries, and moans, and motions of the woman above her.

Elsa's voice went up a few decibels when her back arched, hitting her crescendo magnificently, in Anna's opinion, "**Anna!** Anna!"

When the blonde couldn't support herself any longer, she slipped to the floor, still quaking and pulsing, hooking an arm into a rung to keep herself sitting upright. Anna went down with her, wrapping her arms around the woman and pulling her close, kissing her cheek and forehead. Her eyes remained closed as Elsa leaned tiredly into the redhead, nuzzling her neck, fighting for air. They rested there for a while, the redhead holding the blonde.

Eventually though, the older woman grew restless and sat up straight, looking at Anna from the corner of her eye. Anna blushed, making no attempt to hide it as Elsa leaned in and gave her a kiss, just faintly brushing her lips over the redheads. Something about it was bitter sweet, but Anna didn't know what. They carried on in much the same manner for hours more, until they ended up in the nearest pile of hay, Elsa resting on her side, Anna cuddling her from behind. She should have guessed Elsa would be a "little spoon" kind of person.

"_Not that I'm complaining."_

They fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning, and awoke a few hours later when the sun was shining in through the window in the loft. Birds chirped happily, bees buzzed, Olaf's cows mooed obnoxiously. Ignorant to the pains and troubles of the blonde who lay naked in the straw with Anna, head propped up on her hand as the younger woman slept sprawled on her back. Elsa traced a lazy finger over the redheads freckled skin, over her belly and sternum to her collarbone, the girl squirming under her feather-light touch.

She stirred with a smile, but when she opened her eyes and saw the look on Elsa's face, it faded. The woman looked forlorn. Anna frowned. Regret flashed in Elsa's once more vibrantly blue eyes. The redhead was about to open her mouth to ask if the blonde felt that last night had been a mistake, when she leaned in and stole a small but affectionate kiss. When she withdrew, she didn't smile.

No. This was about something else.

Anna snuggled closer to Elsa, ignoring an annoying piece of straw poking her in the back, "What's wrong?"

The woman finally smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "When you were ill, you said I was incredible."

The redhead prepared to protest, but Elsa continued, "You're the one who's incredible." She drew her gaze away from the girl, avoiding eye contact.

Guilt.

Anna didn't know what to say.

The blonde picked a piece of straw from Anna's red locks, flicking it aside, "We'd better go find Olaf. And Kristoff too, I suppose." That time the smile reached her eyes, even if it was small.

The duo laid there for a while, simpering at one another before they got dressed, and Anna snuck in one last kiss before they left the barn, headed for Olaf's house. They were quiet, but walked close together. As they approached the front door, however, the cadence of Elsa's step slowed, and she gently set a hand on the redheads shoulder to stop her from going in. The woman turned her ear toward the door. Anna could hear muffled hollering from the depths of the house.

Elsa grew tense, brow drawn into a furrow. Anna couldn't make out what was being said, but she was willing to bet that the guys were chatting in there. In a heartbeat, Elsa blew past the girl and stormed into the house with all the fury of a hurricane. The redhead ran in after her, letting the screen door slam behind her as she dashed toward the living room. She could hear Olaf and Kristoff yelling from the entry way, though she couldn't make out what they were arguing about in the cacophony of the two men trying to shout over one another.

"**What the Hell is going on here!?**" Elsa's voice cut through the chaotic hollering.

Anna came in a few seconds behind Elsa, and Kristoff scowled at her. All were quiet. He was sporting a black eye. Her gaze swung to Olaf, who had an icepack on his knuckles. When she looked to Kristoff again, he was looking at Elsa with a grim frown.

"We're leaving. We have work to do." The burly man pushed past Elsa and Anna, stalking from the house, expression surly.

Elsa didn't even open her mouth. She simply passed a quick glance to Anna, apologetic, then followed her cousin as he slammed his way out the front door.

Anna watched her go, crestfallen. Did Elsa **know** this would happen?

_"And what exactly **did** just happen?"_

Her gaze swung back around, looking to Olaf for an explanation. He looked equally confused.

They were both asking the same question in the wake of the events sinking in.

Since **when** did Kristoff start calling the shots?


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: Updating a few hours early, because I do what I want, bitch. Next chapter (11) is the finale. Prepare your bodies.

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright to disney

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Chapter X: "Become wrath."

Olaf didn't have many answers for Anna.

Before he had been able to say anything, the girl had realized that Elsa had just walked **out the freaking door** without so much as a word, and burst outside after the woman, looking around wildly. There was no sign of the cousins, and she called out, but received no answer.

So her friend had to coax her back inside, taking a seat across from her in her recliner as they finally got situated. He could tell Anna was mad, but confusion often superseded other emotions for the girl.

"Talk." She commanded.

Olaf sighed and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, scratching through his hair as he tilted his head, "I don't know much, Anna. Yesterday, when Kristoff and I were alone at the shop, he told me that I 'didn't know what I was doing'. I asked him what he meant, but you guys walked up and he didn't want to argue in front of you, apparently."

When he looked back up at the redhead, she was leaned back in her seat on the sofa, legs crossed, arms folded petulantly.

"So then, last night I convinced him to take a beer run with me. We stopped at the bar, I got a few drinks in him to loosen him up. I thought, you know, maybe we could have a civil conversation if he was tipsy." The man cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, "Then on the way home, I asked what he'd meant by what he said earlier. At first, I was right, he had mellowed out a bit. 'Oh, it's just our family. They wouldn't like Elsa being with Anna.' And I'm all, 'what's wrong with Anna?"

Anna tilted her head, frowning, "Spit it out, Olaf."

The man sped up the canter of his voice, trying to get to the point more quickly, "He says he likes you just fine, but Elsa just can't be with you." He put on his best Kristoff voice, crossing his eyes, throwing in air quotations,"'Not shouldn't, not won't. Can't.'"

His friend look more confused than miffed now. There was a lull in the conversation and Anna narrowed her eyes at him, "This morning."

"Right. Okay. When we got back, I convinced Kristoff to just drink with me for a while so we could chat. Three more beers in, I decide to take my balls out of my purse, and ask the man, 'Why **can't** Elsa be with Anna?' He lays out some bullshit about it being dangerous, and I said, 'Well, Elsa seemed lonely to me, and now she doesn't. I think you should let them be happy.'"

Flopping back in the recliner, Olaf slapped his hands over his eyes, letting the icepack drop to his lap, "The guy looked like I'd kicked his puppy." The dark haired man threw his arms up, exasperated, "He didn't even say anything, he just sat there for a minute, got up, and went to pass out on the couch." With a sigh, he waved a hand, dismissing it, "Anyways, this morning, I get woken up by him stomping into my room all, 'Where's Elsa!?'" he demanded in his mock Kristoff voice.

"And I'm like, 'probably sleeping off getting her ass laid, duh!' He blows a gasket, says he's going to kick your ass, so I tell him, 'over my dead body! Come at me, bro!' He swings, I swing. I managed to duck and clock him in the eye. Then he got to hollerin' about how we've fucked up everything for them, and I should have minded my own business, and... I just don't know, Anna." He seemed depressed by his own story, "I'm sorry." He drew a deep breath, having winded himself with the explanation.

Anna closed her eyes and just sat there for a while, her mind in overdrive. They remained quiet until the redhead opened her eyes again, "You should go home, Olaf." He only hesitated for a moment before leaving without further question.

Anna was fairly numb for the rest of the afternoon until, in the evening, while she was picking at her dinner, she realized that Olaf had socked Kristoff in the face. **Olaf**. Had decked a superhuman. The redhead began to laugh hysterically, pushing her dinner away from her and resting her head in her palm, leaning into her elbow on the tabletop. She closed her eyes, resting her other arm in front of her as she allowed her head to drop, forehead thunking against the wood, supporting hand falling across the back of her skull.

Laughter died into heavy, gasping breaths, and then sobs. Anna cried for a couple of minutes before it dissolved again into panting. As quickly as the spell had come on, it released it's hold on her, and she sat back in her seat, running a hand through her hair.

"_God, what the fuck am I doing?"_ She shook her head, deliberately taking control of her breathing. Yes, she had a connection with Elsa. One forged by really bad circumstances, and perhaps a bit of overexposure to one another at a time when the both of them were in dire need of comfort, or someone to comfort, as the case seemed to be for Elsa, but a connection none-the-less. That aside, it wasn't as if she knew Elsa incredibly well. Still, she felt as though she **wanted** to know her.

But this wasn't a long time lover who had just perished in some terrible accident. Kristoff and his cousin were no doubt still searching for the criminal they had come here for in the first place. Elsa was still here. All the girl needed to do was get in contact with her, talk it out.

The blond man's number crossed her mind and she dug into her pocket to get her phone and search for his digits. It wasn't there. She could have sworn she-

"_Damn,"_ she recalled. Kristoff had written his number on her hand before she left for home. Where she promptly got into the shower and washed off the number.

"Fuuuuuuck," she cursed quietly to herself, letting her head fall to the table again. The redhead closed her eyes and let out a sigh. What was she going to do?

She moped around for two days, mulling over ideas. She couldn't just go over there, right? Knowing what she knew, Kristoff might be inclined to kill her if she really was putting Elsa at risk; he couldn't just frighten her off like an innocent little girl. She had knowledge, and that could make her seem dangerous in his eyes.

Three days in, she reasoned that Kristoff probably didn't hate Olaf's guts quite as much as her's, and **h**e didn't know anything; he **could** be scared off without the risk of him spreading word about them.

So, she finally rang him to let him know she was alright, then sprang the question; would he stop in at the old Bjorgman place to see if he could talk to Elsa? He must have felt guilty, because he didn't bat an eye, agreeing to go the next morning.

Unfortunately, he rang her up as soon as he pulled back into his driveway, sounding a bit shaken.

"Olaf?"

"Anna! Holy shit, that bastard shot my truck! I didn't see him but he-"

Anna's eyes widened, "Oh my gosh, are you okay!?"

"Obviously, or I wouldn't be calling you. Then that crazy dog jumped on the hood. I thought I was puppy chow."

The girl sighed, relaxing into her seat, half out of relief, half out of frustration, "Okay. Thanks for trying, Olaf. Shot in the dark," she flinched at the unintentional slip, "but you don't have their number do you?" She didn't know why the heck she hadn't asked that first. It might have saved the man the risk.

"Sorry, I don't."

Or not. "I'm sorry too, Olaf. If I had known-"

"Don't worry about it, Anna," he sounded calm now, "I get the feeling this was important to you. I'm gonna go change my shorts." A pause, his worry bleeding into his tone, "Don't do anything crazy."

"Yeah. Talk to you later." The redhead pulled back from her cell and hung up.

Kristoff had shot Olaf's vehicle. That seemed like an extreme measure to keep them away from Elsa. Maybe this was too complicated for her. She tried until the end of the week to let go of the issue. She had tried, there was just nothing else she could do; that was the lie she spent four days trying to force herself to swallow.

Finally, on the seventh day, she spent the morning psyching herself up before climbing into her truck and speeding away toward the Bjorgmans. As she was pulling into their driveway, the thunder of a shot rang out, Sven jumping in front of the truck, the shock of it causing Anna to slam on the breaks, jarring her. The redhead remained ducked in her seat for a moment before taking a deep breath, calling on the rage she had worked herself into to pop open the drivers side door and step out, not faltering in the slightest as she slammed it shut behind her and began marching toward the house. Sven didn't move from his spot in front of her vehicle, but watched her intensely.

**BANG**, the weapon screamed again and the dust in Anna's path shot up just before she stepped forward. Anna reeled and stumbled, skidding in the dirt and gravel, and skittering back a few feet on her hands and knees before standing back up, gasping for breath from the startling fact that she'd nearly been hit; the first hadn't even marked her truck.

When it had been quiet for a minute, Anna began to strut toward the house again, steadying her step as she picked up her pace. Half way to the deck, Kristoff burst through the screen door, knocking it clear off the hinges as he stormed up to meet her, getting directly in her face and stepping in against her, "Get the fuck out of here, Anna." His brown eyes burned angrily.

"Let me talk to Elsa, Kristoff." She didn't back down.

"Leave." He demanded again.

"Why did you shoot at me, huh!?" Her hands flew up to shove him, but he caught her wrists and pushed her away.

When she straightened back up, cheeks red with fury, he scowled at her, scoffing at her naivety.

"Don't kid yourself. I'm not that good of a shot. **I** wasn't the one who fired at you, Anna."

Anna suddenly felt her confidence burning away, understanding dawning on her features.

"**Elsa** was, and you don't know shit. Now **go home**."

She was about to call him a liar, filled with chagrin that he would say something so horrible, but another shot echoed through the air, the dust next to her right foot kicked up, making her jump and swing her head around to search for the source.

Anna looked back to Kristoff. His hands were empty by his sides. He was telling the truth.

Bowing her head in defeat, Anna turned away from the man and began to drag her feet back toward her truck.

Maybe she could be scared away like an innocent little child, after all.

The message was clear. The Elsa she wanted to know wasn't home anymore.

Anna spent the next couple of days alternatively working herself to exhaustion and moping, just thinking about what she could have missed. It wouldn't come to her, everything clouded by the enjoyment she had experienced in her time spent with the blonde woman.

As the day of the full moon crept up on her, however, she found herself thinking about something else; the fact that there was a criminal on the loose. A supernatural one. A new idea came to mind in the time she spent pondering that knowledge. If she couldn't talk to Elsa, then she would try to help her in any way she could.

So, gathering up every scrap of silver in the house, she hopped in her truck and made a trip to town, pulling to a stop outside of the general store and parking on the side of the street. Grabbing the small cardboard box from the passenger seat, she jumped out of the truck and walked inside with purpose. She strode up to the counter, head held high, and set the box in front of the cashier.

"I need silver bullets," the girl didn't miss a beat, maintaining steady eye contact.

The man cracked a smirk and snorted a little laugh, "Is that so? Hunting monsters are you?" When he looked back into Anna's eyes, she didn't waver, lips not even twitching.

His smile slowly died, and he cleared his throat, "Um, well, we can do that, but it'll be expensive."

"I need six. You can keep what's left."

The man's brow raised on his forehead, and he looked down to the box, pulling it toward him to look inside, scratching at his chin considerately, "Well," a pause, "Okay. You've got a deal. Be ready next-"

"I need them tomorrow. I'll throw in an extra sixty."

"Deal!"

Anna didn't linger, turning and heading back for her truck. If that bastard came back in the next few days, she would be ready.

Unknown to the redhead, Elsa had spent the time since they had been separated in a not-so dissimilar manner. Kristoff had given her a stricter directive. Before she had met Anna, she probably would have spilled his blood for that, cousin or not. Now though, and for the first time in a long time, Elsa felt that she had a stake in this.

So she would obey. Most of her time was spent out searching for signs of her target. Her time spent at home not sleeping or eating, she took up hidden spots around the property with her rifle, just watching, waiting. It was during those long hours lying in the brush, sweating in the heat of the day that she thought about Anna, and if there was some way to fix all of this. The truth seemed the logical place to start, but that opportunity was gone.

When the day of the full moon came, she was well rested, and spent the morning stretching and preparing for the coming chance to finally end this. In the late evening, at sunset, she ate a hearty meal before going into the back yard to visit with Sven, but was intercepted by Kristoff.

"I wanna talk."

She waved a hand, looking ahead and away from him as she began to walk again, aloof, "So talk."

"You seem awfully confident about tonight, but you said you and Sven haven't found any sign of the guy."

"We haven't, but he's been moving toward town. It's risky, but Sven and I will patrol opposite directions from the edge of town to just outside Anna's property. That's not too far, fifteen miles, so with a little luck, we **will** catch him. We've got him trapped."

"How do you know he's even still here?"

"If he didn't want to be here, he'd have left after he attacked Westleton. Something is keeping him here."

Kristoff grew quiet, crossing his arms and looking down at his feet. Elsa turned and headed around the corner of the house, moving for the front yard, and after a moment of hesitation, he followed, "I hope you're right. Sorry to be hard on you, it's just-"

"No, Kristoff. Don't apologize for-"

The man nearly crashed into her when she stopped short as they nearly rounded the next corner. Elsa's nostrils flared, and she inhaled deeply. With a stern expression, she started moving again, breaking into a jog that prompted her cousin to follow suit. The blonde slowed as she approached the mail box at the end of the drive, stopping and flinging the end of it open. She retrieved the few pieces of paper inside and began flipping through them. Then her nostrils flared again when she stopped on a postcard, eyes going wide with horror. The mail fell from her hands, clutching the card with dread, and she froze.

When Kristoff realized Elsa was smelling the mail, he copied her, shock taking over his facade as he dashed out into the middle of the road, scouring one direction before turning to scan the other, "Holy shit! He was just here!" Seeing no further sign of the man, he ran back to Elsa, watching the mail fall from her grasp. He skidded to a stop, ignoring the paper around their feet as he leaned in awkwardly to read the card. Shock gave way to vexation.

Three big red words sent Elsa's heart into a frenzy, terror mounting.

"I HAVE HER."

They looked at one another for all of three seconds before Elsa flung the card and spun, sprinting full speed in a diagonal line across their property, and leaving her cousin in the dust. It was faster to get to Anna's house through the woods. Kristoff only lingered behind for a beat before he ran back into the street and dashed up the bumpy pavement to meet his cousin there. Kristoff was fast, but he wasn't as agile as his cousin. It would be quicker for him to take the street.

They had to hurry. There wasn't much time.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Frozen and it's characters are copyright to Disney

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Chapter XI: "You'd take that from me."

Anna lounged at home, sipping coffee and channel surfing when there was a knock at the door. Flipping the TV off, she quickly grabbed her rifle, which was leaning against the arm of the couch, and carefully tucked it out of sight behind the couch cushions before getting up and heading for the entrance to her home.

The redhead cracked the door open, peeking out to find a tall man standing outside. He was well groomed and dressed in a suit, with neatly trimmed sideburns and sharp features. His voice was smooth, "Ah, good evening. Sorry to bother you. My car broke down outside, and I was wondering if you might have a phone I could use-"

"Don't have a cell phone?" Anna interrupted.

"I do," he raised the object in his palm, waving it with an sheepish smile. The screen was dark, "Unfortunately, the thing died on me." He raised a hand, scratching at the back of his dark red hair and flashing her a charming smile.

The girl hesitated. She looked behind him. Sure enough, there was a car off the side of the road a short distance down the road past her driveway. He seemed harmless enough.

"Okay, hang on," she closed the door, retrieving her phone from the kitchen, then returned to find him with his hands in his pockets, looking suave. Too bad he couldn't hold a candle to Elsa from her current mindset. She offered him her phone, the number for the local repair shop already keyed in, "Here."

The man took the phone and tilted his head gratefully, "Thanks." He pressed dial and held the phone up to his ear. Anna watched from behind the door as he talked to the repair shop about picking up his vehicle.

Elsa was almost half way there. She had been flying at full speed through the trees, clearing fallen logs in a swift leap and tearing through the dense brush, unstoppable, for three miles now. It was getting dark, and her sense of dread was rising. She mentally berated herself for being so stupid. That day outside the general store, when Anna had stopped to look around...

She wouldn't let Anna pay for **her** mistakes. Not any more.

Kristoff finally passed a field that marked the fact that he was a third of the way to Anna's. He was sweating bullets and his lungs and heart were straining, but the adrenaline in his system spurred him on. Then luck struck him. Olaf was riding past him in the opposite direction, and he kept running full speed, even when the man slammed on the breaks, threw his vehicle in reverse, and rode backwards beside the man. He rolled his window down and stood up in his seat awkwardly, shouting above the rumble of the engine, "Holy **fuck,** where are you going in such a hurry!? Get in, man!"

Kristoff didn't stop, instead reaching over and yanking the door open, jumping in as it moved, "**Get to Anna's!**" He fell into the seat, gulping greedily for air and slamming the door shut. Olaf bricked the breaks again and swung the wheel around, sliding across the road to turn and head back the way he came.

The man standing in Anna's doorway hit the 'end' key and handed the cell back to the girl, "They said it'll be an hour. I don't suppose a handsome stranger could convince you to let him in? This heat wave is murder. I might die out there."

There was a time a little more than a month ago that Anna would have liked that saucy smile he was giving her. Now it just bugged her. Still, it was still incredibly hot outside. With a sigh, she opened her door fully, stepping back. The sun wasn't even quite down yet, the moon wasn't out. She was being a little paranoid.

Anna gave a little flourish, "Alright, sure, Mister Handsome Stranger."

The man chuckled, stepping inside and offering her a hand to shake, "Hans Westergard."

She flashed a fake smile, shaking his hand briefly and closing the door behind the man, "Anna. Please, come into the kitchen for coffee."

"That would be great." He grinned, enthusiastic as he followed at her heel and took a seat at the table as she grabbed a clean mug, pouring him a cup.

When she set the cup in front of him, he winked at her, "Thanks again. You're a true hero."

Anna scoffed at the idea, "You have no clue."

He cackled more softly this time, shifting in his seat, "So, how is it, living out here? I bet it's lonely."

The redhead shook her head, a bit disarmed by his observation, "Uh," she paused, "Sometimes."

That was strange. Why had she confessed that?

"Well, at least it's quiet. I used to like the quiet."

Anna actually found herself a bit interested. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. "Used to?"

"Oh, you know, we all change throughout life. Our personal tastes and all."

"I know what you mean," she agreed, taking a sip from her own coffee.

He took a swig from his, "Still, Arendelle seems nice enough."

"You're just passing through?"

"Oh, I've been hanging around. I'm," he seemed to be searching for a word, "on vacation, I guess is the tactful answer. But really, it was a suspension from my job. My life." He sighed, a solemn look crossing his face before the grin returned, "I'll have it back to it soon though."

The pair fell into quiet, Anna looking down into her cup of coffee, "That's good. I know what it's like for your life to be upended, but eventually, things get back to normal. Right?" She was asking herself as much as him.

Elsa's lungs stung, her chest hurt, her limbs burned, head pulsing, but she couldn't stop. She pushed herself to her limit, never missing a step as she tried to draw on the moon and the change to feed her stamina. Closing the last three miles to Anna's house saw the reward of the treeline, the end of the forest that led to Anna's land. The sight pulled on her deepest reserves, and she redoubled her efforts, kicking up dirt and debris behind her until _"__**Finally!**_" she breached the open air.

Hans' head was bowed, looking into his own cup, staring at his reflection in the dark liquid. He scoffed slightly at her question, giving a weak shrug, then closed his eyes and started chuckling to himself.

Anna looked up at him, narrowing her eyes, smiling a bit in spite of the strange topic, "What?"

"It's just," the man shook his head, his voice quiet and wary, wearing a small smile,"I'm wondering..." He paused, drawing out suspension as he gradually reopened his oculars, slowly raising his gaze to meet hers, "What is it Elsa told you about me?" The smile spread suddenly, splitting his face as he snorted another small laugh.

Hans watched jovially, able to see Anna mentally connecting the dots behind her eyes. "Oh, so she has told you about me then. That's a surprise. She usually lies."

"Lies?" she repeated in a breath, staring blankly ahead.

"Of course." He said as if it were obvious. She noticed him tilt his ear sightly in her direction to listen, then he glanced over her shoulder toward the hall that lead to the entrance before continuing, holding her gaze again, "But I think I'll just let you ask her." The man motioned with an open hand for Anna to look behind her, and she turned with mounting horror to do as he suggested.

The sound of the front door slamming open against the wall echoed nosily through the house, the pounding of footsteps against the hardwood floor traveling towards them. Elsa staggered into the room, gasping and gulping, struggling to breathe as her heart jack-hammered and her chest squeezed painfully. The sight before her set her face aghast.

There he was. Hans. Sitting with a smug smile and a tilt of his head behind Anna, at the side of her dinner table, with a cup of coffee in front of him.

"Wow, you ran all the way here?" The red haired man broke the silence with a cocky squawk. "You have to be tired, and here I was, hoping for a real fight from you."

"_Keep him talking while you catch your breath."_ Elsa's instincts commanded her.

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" he shot back with sarcasm, slapping a hand against the table, "Good question. Tell me this first, what do you think **you're** doing here?"

Elsa's gaze bounced away with uncertainty, but she remembered where she was quickly and returned her attention to him, "Tracking you."

That answer made the man show all his teeth, a chortle slowly bubbling up from within his gut that sent a shiver down Anna's spine. Elsa just tensed.

"Yeah, I knew you would think that, you clever bitch. You weren't though. Ever since you chased me across the Canadian border a year ago, I changed my tactics. I've been looking for just the right place to lure you into an ambush. This little podunk was the perfect area-"

Elsa became aware of rage replacing fear.

"-To lure you in and spring a trap."

The woman's breathing was beginning to even out, her face cooling very slightly. Still, she was now full of a new rush of adrenaline, and it kept her sharp.

"There was no sign of you for weeks. How?"

"You should know. Wolfsbane. I always wondered why you used it back then, and now I know. It's awfully hard for you to find things when they leave no scent behind, right?"

"Imagine my surprise when you turned out to have two weaknesses. Instead of just getting you when you were growing sure of yourself, you went and dragged innocent little Anna into this. And then, you fucked her and abandoned her."

Elsa clenched her fists, sucking her teeth as her nails pressed bloody crescents into her palms.

"But," Hans waved a hand dismissively, leaning back in his seat and looking away from her, deliberately mocking the threat she posed, "That's not what this is about. This is about me warning Anna about you. I think she deserves to have the truth, don't you?"

The blonde didn't speak. She looked like she might blow a gasket. Anna was watching Elsa like she had experienced the deep wound all over again. Her eyes were glassy, lashes wet. Fear permeated the depths of those aqua pools, but Elsa didn't dare take her sights off the man.

"Is it true?" Anna murmured helplessly.

Elsa lunged to go over the table at Hans' throat, but he jumped to his feet with an angry snarl, flipping the table at the woman with a tremendous force that swept her off her feet and sent her sprawling. Anna yelped at the abruptness of it all, suddenly finding herself being yanked from her chair and gripped tightly around the neck, held in the fold of the man's arm. With his other hand, he took hold of her face, backing away from Elsa as she heaved the table off of herself and stumbled her way back to her feet, falling into an offensive stance.

"Let me guess. She said I was either a lunatic or an escaped criminal?"

Anna's world froze. She was suddenly cold.

"A... criminal.

Elsa growled viciously, baring her teeth as her canines elongated.

"Well, I'll tell you the truth, since she won't."

Hans leaned in and pressed his mouth against Anna's ear as he squeezed her cheeks, whispering harshly, "She's the criminal."

Anna let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding, "Wh-what? Why?"

At that, Hans sneered, his previously handsome mask dropping, eyes burning with hatred, "Because," he paused, spitting, "**That bitch infected me!**"

What little resistance the girl was putting up melted away.

"She took away my **fucking life, **just like she took away** yours.**"

They were silent for a while. Elsa didn't deny it. The man's eyes flicked away from Elsa when he felt Anna tremor, and that was all she chance she needed. She lunged again, this time closing in from a low angle, Hans backpedaled, and Anna followed her own instincts, clumsy as they were, and grabbed Hans' elbow and wrist, chomping down as hard as she could. She was surprised to find that she could break the skin.

The man let out a scream of sheer fury, and Elsa caught him by his open shoulder, digging her fingers into the flesh as she yanked him away from Anna, and flung him toward the counters, where he fell back over his own feet and slammed into them.

"Anna, **run!**" Elsa barked as she went at Hans again, who regained his footing with startling speed.

The girl didn't need to be told, and had already taken off in a mad dash for the living room. She crashed into the couch, fetching her rifle before running out the front door and around toward the back.

Hans turned as Elsa dove at him, swinging his arm with a meaty fist that packed against her cheek with the sound of raw steak being beaten, sending her staggering back and hitting the wall with some force, her cranium crashing into it hard enough to dent the drywall. Her head wobbled, but Hans didn't come for her again, instead bashing his way out the rear exit into the dark and making a break for Anna's barn.

She didn't waste any time in getting to her feet, though she wobbled and stumbled as she gained back her pace, breaking out of the door after him with enough power to jerk one of the hinges free from the frame.

Anna had come around the corner just in time to see Hans break into her barn, the cows and sheep spilling out in a raging flood. She had her gun raised, but when Elsa came storming out, she shouted for her attention, "Elsa!" and threw out her hand to point at the building.

Elsa disappeared from the spot with blinding speed, having regained her composure, and pursued her target into the large structure. Anna took off after her, though she was several hundred feet behind the woman by the time she vanished from sight.

She stopped sixty feet out and raised her gun, listening closely to the ruckus from the barn. There was a loud bang, and then inhuman sounds poured through the wooden walls; snorts, snarls, gurgling and growling. Anna didn't waver; she didn't even flinch. There was a slight thump from up high on the upper level, and the redhead adjusted her aim, planting her feet more firmly.

Silence. Tense, terse, dreaded silence.

Elsa and Hans exploded from through the front wall of the barn from the loft, tumbling end over end until they landed with a sickening crunch, Elsa beneath Hans. The loud crash and horrible collision with the ground **did** cause Anna to jump back, worry for the blonde filling her to the brim. Elsa struggled to move, dazed from the impact.

Hans reared back on his knees, straddling the woman's hips, and threw back his head to let out a howl of pure, unbridled agony, hands stiff and close to his chest as his fingertips gushed blood around razor sharp claws. His fancy suit was torn from his elongated limbs and the expansion of his muscles, and a fine ring of muddy-red fur had grown around his face and over his forearms. The man fed his pain into his anger until he found himself able to draw back an arm, preparing to strike Elsa. The action prompted Anna to aim as swiftly as possible.

The blonde's head was whipped to the side by the force of Hans' blow as his claws slashed her across the face. Elsa screamed and tried to roll and press her face into the dirt, arms flailing wildly as she blindly swung for him.

"**Hans!**" Anna called out, the man whirling on her. He caught her aiming for him and leapt into action in a fraction of a second, bullrushing the girl as his claws glistened with Elsa's blood under full moon.

The redhead thought she would have more time, but the sight of the monster charging her caused her to fire prematurely, and she missed, turning and dropping to her stomach as he jumped, hands outstretched for her. Hans' waiting paws cleared her by a hairs breadth, sparing her from being gutted like a fish, but he still struck her bodily, and her landing knocked the wind out of her. Hans slid on all fours, skidding to a stop before rising back to his feet and turning slowly to face her.

He glanced to Elsa, who lay with her wounds pressing into the Earth, gripping at her face as blood poured through her fingers. Anna finally caught a gasp, and looked up to see Hans approaching her, hovering menacingly over her.

His malformed mouth looked about to speak when he was suddenly swept off his feet, the air being knocked from his chest this time. Kristoff slammed into the man from the side, catching Hans' flank with his shoulder and letting loose with a mighty yell as he pushed. If Anna wasn't feeling so thrashed, she might have laughed at the look of surprise on the monsters face.

The feeling of triumph didn't last long. Hans dug his feet into the ground and stopped Kristoff cold, bigger than the blond man at this point. With a roar of his own, Hans took hold of his new target's shoulders, claws piercing the man's arms as he reared back and slammed his head forward, catching Kristoff's brow with his forehead.

Blood gushed from the gash on the blond's face and into his eye, and his hand flew up to cover the wound as he stumbled back onto his butt, rolling onto his elbows and knee's. Hans stepped in close and drove the end of his foot into Kristoff's ribcage, the force of the kick lifting the smaller man from the ground and dropping him limply. Kristoff coughed painfully.

Hans then began to pace back and forth in front of Anna and Kristoff, waiting a few seconds, watching the trio. Then he spoke, "I'll tell you more, Anna." His voice lisped like his tongue couldn't fit in his mouth and saliva spurted from between his jagged teeth, "You don't have any real friends here." He said it as if he had sensed her victorious emotions when the blond had pounced on him. "What did Kristoff tell you about what he was here for, hmm?"

More lies. Anna's heart pounded against her chest, and she made to move, but froze when Hans growled a single warning.

"You think he's protecting her, but he isn't. Sure, some ken protect the ones with the change, but not him. He's taking a test to be accepted by the caern."

He smiled, gums exposed by his bulging jaw, a string of drool dripping from his mouth, "He's here to make sure she **kills** me. Her fucking **victim**. At the behest of their leader." He finally stopped pacing, "And if she doesn't?" He snorted, animalistic, "Then he'll tell them, and they'll kill **her.**"

Anna realized this whole situation was a whole lot more **fucked up** than she had ever fathomed, her gaze locked on the ground in front of her.

When Hans groaned and writhed, she glanced back up to him, his form pushing further into the change. He shook his head, eyes taking on a golden glow as he let the change take him fully. A final cry of glee and rage and sorrow, and Hans shuddered, bestial. When he finally looked at Anna again, Hans was gone. All that remained was the monster.

He was about to come for her, his body poised to strike, when there was a rustle in the grass a few feet away. The beast spun to try and dodge.

Elsa soared past him at breakneck speed on all fours, half-changed herself, blood painted in streaks down her face and neck, into her torn shirt, though her wounds had partially closed. With her mouth agape, she caught the two outer fingers of Hans' left hand when he turned, and then his tail, sheering them clean from his body.

When she stopped, she spun in a fury to face him, his fingers and tail still caught in her mouth, the bloody stubs sticking out between her teeth. The bestial Hans let out a screech that had Anna covering her ears, arching his back and howling at the sky in livid, savage anguish. The monster's gaze snapped to Elsa, and the very sight of her snarling, cold stare and gleaming teeth clutching his extremities sent him reeling, dropping to all fours as he made a break for the woods.

The pale beast dropped it's mouthful of body-parts, cutting the air with an enraged roar as she sped off after the fleeing culprit.

Once they were halfway to the trees, Anna heard a voice call from behind her, "Anna!"

Kristoff groaned from where he lay in the grass a few feet away.

"**Anna!**" Olaf's panicked voice came again.

Anna felt herself sitting up, turning to face the man as he approached her from behind, dropping to his knee's next to her and taking her shoulders, "What the fuck is going on!? Are you alright!?"

The redhead flinched when she moved her right leg. It was sore. She ignored it and pushed on, moving to stand. Olaf helped her up, and she looked into his eyes, "Give me your coat. It's chilly out here." He didn't ask, obeying without question. She slipped it on and bent down to pick up her gun with another wince, "Olaf, go home. I know you're worried, but I can't explain right now. **Please.**"

He hesitated. God damnit, he had gotten half way home from dropping off Kristoff, who had also told him to go home before he swerved the truck around for the second time that evening and rushed here to help.

He would just have to trust her. He sighed and, looked her square in the face with a reluctant nod, "Be careful." Her friend then turned and booked it back to his vehicle. If anything happened to her, he would hate himself forever, but something about her tone of voice brokered no argument. He hoped to Hell and back again that she would be okay.

Anna was glad the man didn't argue. She didn't want him to go through what she was going through. She was suddenly determined to take Hans out for the sake of protecting Olaf from exposure. With that thought spurring her on, she made as hasty a rush as she could for the treeline, limping after the pair of beasts who had disappeared in the forest.

Elsa was two hundred feet into the inky blackness of the woods before Hans struck, swinging a massive branch from behind an oak like a baseball bat. The blonde woman dropped to her back, and the monster stepped around the trunk of his ambush point, raising the branch over his head to chop downward at her.

The woman kicked the inside of the beasts knee, hearing a vicious snap as she rolled to the side, then pushed back over her shoulder, rolling again to land gracefully on the balls of her feel. Her leg muscled bunched, ready to spring, and she launched herself up at an angle, flying through the air past the man. She caught him in mid-flight, claws leaving a wake of nasty gashes across the side of his head, shredding his ear and sending him spinning.

Hans roared as his rage flared, using the momentum of his spin to bring the branch around again. This time he clocked her at an upward angle against the side of her own cranium, knocking the pale creature from clear out of the air to hit the ground several feet away with a jarring **thump**.

Elsa tried to push herself up, but fell to her back instead, head lulling back and forth as she struggled to focus.

Heaving for air, Hans snorted confidently. He **had** her.

His head twitched and he groaned and grunted, working to form words through his bestial tongue, "Ahhhh. Victory. Vengeance."

Elsa's eyes rolled back in her head before slipping closed, the change beginning to leave her, too disoriented to respond to the pain of reverting.

"You remember that girl in Washington? You never found her body. That's because I ate it up." He cackled, a series of snorting grunts, smacking his lips wetly, quickly and repeatedly in a comedic display of eating something tasty. Elsa closed her eyes, trying to ignore the imagery. It made her... **hungry**. "When I'm done with you, Elsa," he paused, tilting his head as a thick line of drool slid down his chin and hung from his lip, "I'm going to eat Anna **alive**."

That snapped Elsa back to reality. Golden eyes suddenly jumped to attention, wide and alert, locking onto Hans' eyes with a raging inferno of anger. It was quiet for a moment as he realized those eyes had changed. When they opened, the whites of her eyes were black as pitch, the equally dark outer edges of her iris separated from the sclera by a fine, jagged thread of fiery red.

His smile fell, eyes wide with horror. His blood ran cold in a way he didn't think he could experience anymore. It made him feel human. Before he could even smile bitterly about the irony, he heard the faint canter of laughter coming forth from the near-human woman (claws, leaner muscles, and pointed ears aside), who was sitting up when he next blinked, her head bowed. It started out slow, giggling, growing in fervor and cadence, volume finally reaching a fever pitch when the woman threw her head back, positively howling with jovial, gravelly cheers.

Elsa's mouth was unusually large, but not malformed, her teeth pointed, white, gleaming; inhuman, but not those of the animal. The next instant he blinked, she was on him like a terror, the insane and echoing laughter gone in an eerie silence as she slammed his back hard against a tree several feet behind him. She had him by the fur on his chest, her grip so tight he feared she would tear it right from him, and his flesh along with it. He was still bigger than her, though she was tall, but it didn't seem to matter, any struggle he put forth infantile compared to the raw strength she demonstrated. She leaned in close, yanking him down so she could whisper to him, her voice rough like sandpaper, low, a humming growl, "Do you think I haven't eaten people, Hans?" She grinned, sounding pleased when he began to tremble in her grasp, "Don't you know why I'm called a monster, even among my own people?"

She leaned back slightly to watch his adam's apple bob when he gulped, letting his imagination try to fill in the gaps of what awful things Elsa had to have done to be feared by other monsters. Her grin didn't waver in the slightest, letting him hang for his trespassing on her very source of purpose; Anna, who was sweet and beautiful like the mythical Orpheus, taming beasts with her determination and a song. After another full minute of letting him stew in trepidation, she breathed the answer, mouthing the words slowly and clearly to him, "I'll eat anyone. Even other werewolves." Some far away part of her sadly reflected on the time Anna had thought she was joking when she said that human tasted bad. If only she had been.

He didn't have time to panic or fight. Elsa turned and hurled his weight with enough force to do exactly as he'd initially feared and ripped out a chunk of fur and flesh from his chest. However, what he hadn't expected was that with her other hand, she would grab hold of his remaining ear and jerk it straight from the base of his head, severing it by **tearing** it from him.

The beast let out a squeal of fright and agony, shrieking like a pathetic animal as he crashed into the next nearest tree, head cracking back against the wood hard enough to fracture his skull. His feet hit the ground first and they slid out from under him as his body failed to respond to his will, the desire to flee. His head rolled forward, chin against his chest as Elsa began to approach him with an aloof casualness in her step. She was taking her time now.

The pure aura of horrifying pheromones the woman permeated the air with caused him to call enough strength to turn his eyes up to meet her gaze.

Her voice rumbled, harsher, louder, "**You think you're a monster, Hans?**"

The beast sobbed and rolled to the side, using his last ounces of willpower to try and crawl away. He was like a worm compared to the monster that came to tower over him.

Elsa was utterly without pity. She stomped onto Hans' back and he let loose another cry of despair as he felt his lower body go numb. She had broken his spine.

The last clear words he heard with his ruined ears when he tried to turn, looking at her from the corner of his eye as tears spilled down into the dirt below.

"**Don't make me laugh.**"

Elsa opened her mouth wide and lunged for his throat.

Animal screams rang out through the chill of the night, continuing to echo eerily even after the source abruptly stopped. Anna had heard several before, but the last one sent a shiver racing through her body. She hoped it wasn't Elsa.

Why did it have to be so goddamn dark in these woods? She picked up the pace, risking further injury to reach Elsa sooner, clutching her gun desperately.

It wasn't far until she stumbled on the blonde, barely making her out in the moonlight peeking between the treetops.

The woman stood with her back to Anna, head bowed, looking at a large stain of blood on the leaves at her feet. The redhead stopped, rooted to the spot. Where was Hans?

The pair stood quietly, and after a while, the crickets finally began to chirp. Elsa slowly lifted her head and turned to face Anna, eyes blinking blue, and Anna knew where Hans had gone. What was at Elsa's feet weren't leaves. They were shreds of clothing. The bloody hand print at the side of the blonde's neck and face, and dark smudges around her mouth told the story. The girl wanted to be horrified. She wanted to be appalled. She **wanted to want** to run away and hide.

But she **wasn't** any of those things. Quickly fumbling to flick the safety on her model 70, she then dropped the gun and broke into a limping run, leaving Elsa stunned when she threw her arms around the woman's shoulders, crashing against her in a fierce hug, crying out in sheer relief, "Elsa!"

The taller woman staggered a bit, straightening her posture as she set her hands soaked in red against Anna's back, holding her with great care. It would stain Olaf's coat, but that wasn't even a passing wonder. Anna tightened her hold and pressed her face into the crook of Elsa's neck. The blonde released a breath she hadn't known she was holding, fully wrapping the redhead in her arms and squeezing firmly, pressing her eyes against the girls shoulder.

They could only afford a minute, Anna hopping back and relaying in a hurried voice that Kristoff had been hurt, turning to rush back for the man. She took hold of Elsa's hand, interlocking their fingers and taking the lead, setting a fast pace, weaving between the trees much quicker than before.

When they breached the treeline into the open, they pushed into a run at the sight of someone kneeling over the unconscious Kristoff. It was Olaf, returned again. The man just didn't know when to give up. When they came to stand over the blond man and Anna's friend, he was gently slapping the bigger man's cheek, "Hey, Kristoff, come on, man."

Kristoff's eyes fluttered. In a tired rasp, Elsa spoke up, "Get up or I'll eat your share of breakfast."

The dazed man blinked, squinting at his cousin as he lifted his head slightly from the ground, then groaned in pain and rolled onto his side, hands lifting to hold his aching cranium, "Oh, man, my head."

Everyone relaxed, finally feeling the full effect of the horrible events of the night being over. Sure, three of the four of them had taken a significant thrashing, but they were all alive, and it was over. At least, that was how it seemed for a while. There were still a lot of things yet to be said.

After Olaf had helped get Kristoff inside of Anna's house and comfortable on the couch, Anna convinced the man to **finally** go home and rest. He was reluctant again, but this time, fully complied. Kristoff napped on the sofa for the last couple of hours before sunrise, assuring Anna that he was fine to sleep, and that it helped the healing process.

While Olaf remained, Elsa stayed out of the reach of the porchlight, hiding the newly formed scars that marred her features, though they weren't gauchely visible. She didn't want to risk the man's sanity by making him ask questions she just couldn't bring herself to lie about again, after all. Once he was gone, she walked into the house, following Anna's scent to the kitchen. Anna was washing her hands in the sink from cleaning the gash on Kristoff's forehead for him.

Elsa stalked up behind her, quiet as a corpse, and gently set her hands on the girls hips. Anna didn't startle.

The redhead had one question on her mind to start with. She reached out and took the dishtowel tucked into the handle of her fridge, drying her hands, then slipping the corner under the water before turning to face the taller woman. Elsa lifted her hands just enough to allow for it before replacing them right where she wanted them. Anna moved cautiously and began to wipe the blood from around the blonde's mouth, unsure if the scars were tender.

"Can you tell me why Kristoff was so angry before?"

The pale woman sighed. No more lies. "We're not supposed to be with humans the way I was with you. And in my position," she paused to let the redhead wipe across her lips, "It's considered... well, something similar to treason. I was already on thin ice for infecting Hans. Killing him was supposed to save me from being banished."

Supposed to. Anna hung on to those words. She didn't want to ask what happened if you committed treason while "on thin ice", but maybe she would have the chance to find out later. When she was done wiping Elsa's mouth and chin clean, she moved up to her nose, eyes, then her forehead, "Why did you fire at me that day?"

After a while, Elsa spoke again, "I realized while we were apart that killing Hans wouldn't make the fact that I had stolen his life go away, even if he was a miserable wretch as a human. I realized," she paused, closing her eyes as Anna neared completion of her task, "That I had done the same thing to you."

Anna lowered her hand and tossed the now stained rag to the counter-top, turning again to face the woman and resting her hands in crook of Elsa's elbows with a tender squeeze.

Elsa continued, "There's a difference between you and him though. You aren't infected."

A mental image of Elsa picking bits of Hans from her teeth flashed through Anna's mind. She didn't even flinch.

"You can leave wonderland, and never have to experience anything like this again. You'll grow up, you'll love somebody, you'll have kids. It will take time for you to get there, but I can give you back what I took from you."

Anna finally looked up into Elsa's eyes, holding her gaze. She wanted to tell Elsa that she **was **her life, but that wouldn't be true. She just didn't want to acknowledge what she knew the blonde was telling her. Instead, she settled for trying to form one last, thin thread that would tie her to the woman. "Tell me about **your** life."

Elsa stared at her for a moment before answering, glancing down and away, "I grew up in a different caern from the one I consider mine. I had never been outside of one until two and half years ago. I was raised," shaking her head in disagreement with the term, "Groomed, really, to take up a position of leadership in a caern, and was traded to the one we came here from when I was ten. They educated me thoroughly, showed me how to fight, and how to control the change. Then, when I passed my rites..." She stopped, seeming to reflect for a few seconds, "They made me into a monster."

She smiled bitterly, "It was just a little bit at a time, so slight I couldn't even see the change. Just like with silver. Poison."

Anna reached up to cup the woman's cheeks, guiding her mournful blue pools to meet hers again.

"Until one day, I found that I could stop the change from taking me completely, balancing on the thin wire that separated those two parts of me; an intelligent being and a wild abomination, becoming tangled until there wasn't a difference any more."

Elsa pursed her lips. She wanted to go on, but was afraid. Anna could feel it. So to give the woman courage, ignoring all that that she was aware of, she leaned up to offer a kiss of reassurance. When Anna pulled away, Elsa couldn't hold back the small but telling smile that crept onto her features. The two simpered at one another before the blonde's smile finally faltered and she looked away, "When I turned twenty, two years and seven months ago, the council arranged for a test at the behest of our leader. I was put into a situation where it was impossible to escape without killing my opponents, but..."

The woman shuddered and closed her eyes, and Anna dropped her hands to the woman's shoulders, where she rested her head as she leaned against her. Elsa's arms slid around the redheads waist, "I didn't just kill them. I let the change take me, completely; unchained myself. I became something else. A real monster. Not just a werewolf with a bad nature. Evil.

I didn't want to be that, so after a while of putting up with the council encouraging the behavior, I ran away from home, just like a petulant child. That's when I met Hans."

At that admission, Anna leaned back, tilting her head at the woman but waiting for her to explain, "I knew there was a small town near to the caern. He took me under his wing and I helped him commit petty crimes. Breaking and entering, theft, small-time gambling scams. It was mostly harmless. He said I was 'amazing'. I was so 'good', that no one ever caught my slight of hand.

Of course, we were both getting drunk on confidence, and after about half a year, he wanted to step up the game. I didn't and said I would walk. 'I'll kill you,' he told me, flat out. I dared him to try. His motivations sound obvious in retrospect; once you have power, you'll always want more." Elsa's thoughts lingered on the thoughts of her hunger for a few seconds.

"But my mistake? I was just plain stupid. I knew what I was capable of, but I denied that what had once been '**it**'... the monster, and what had once been '**me**', had become one-and-the-same. Hans made his move. He cut me. I cut him. I bled into his wound just because I could. Then I left him there."

Shame was written openly on Elsa's features now. "When I realized that I had left him to that kind of fate, Anna, I killed the whole town. Sixty people. I ate and ate and ate until I thought I would burst, and I was still so hungry."

She ran her tongue across her lips. Maybe she expected Anna to recoil or grow sick, but she just continued to watch the woman intently. "I only returned to the caern because I thought they would execute me. They debated it for a while, but ended up deciding against it. I was too good of an 'asset' to lose." At that, she scowled, scoffing.

"So I was sent to find Hans and kill him, and they lied to me, telling me that it would prove my loyalties still remained with the laws of the caern." Her expression was dark now. "They baited Kristoff, knowing he wanted into the caern- tricked him into being my 'parole officer' because they knew I wouldn't kill him, even if I hurt him. And I still had the authority that came with being the leader's chosen apprentice. They knew he would respect my decisions as long as they were in line with their goals."

Elsa looked at Anna, meeting her eyes of her own volition at last, "I lied to you the way they lied to me. I took your life away the same way they took mine." With a sad sigh, she lifted a hand to tip the girl's chin up, brushing her lips across the redhead's, "I won't make you a monster."

Anna frowned, hesitating only a fraction of a second before throwing her arms around Elsa's shoulders like she had earlier that night, squeezing her, clutching her like she would disappear. Elsa hugged her tightly in return, and Anna tried to ignore the pain, both emotional and physical.

The sun was finally beginning to peek over the horizon, visible from the window above the sink, and Kristoff complained as he stirred and rose from sleep to sluggishly drag himself to the kitchen, seeking the women. He stopped in the doorway, and Anna expected him to be mad. Instead, he took up a glum look, eyes gloomy as he looked back and forth between the pair holding one another.

Reaching up to rub the sleep from his face, he blinked a few times, sighing heavily, "I'm going back to the house to pack our bags, Elsa. It's going to be a long day." He didn't say anything else, just standing up a little straighter and heading for the front door.

Anna's aqua eyes fell back on Elsa, questioning, but calm.

"I can't stay, Anna."

Something about what she had learned during the night had changed the way she accepted Elsa, though she wasn't sure what exactly it was, and she was too tired to argue. Instead, she opted for taking the blonde by the hand and leading her to her room to lay on the bed while Kristoff was gone. She left her door open, sitting on the end of the mattress and scooting back until she could rest her head on the pillows, never letting go of Elsa, guiding her along like she had several times before. There was no guess as to what to do. The blonde snuggled up to Anna, resting partially on top of her as the redhead closed her eyes, laying her head on the girl's shoulder, hugging her waist. The girl wrapped her arms around the woman's neck, holding her without reserve. Their eyes closed, and they sighed as they drifted off.

The pair dozed for a few hours, soaking in each others presence while Kristoff took his time getting home, packing their backpacks, and returning. He woke them with surprising gentleness, lightly knocking at Anna's door and holding up her bag for her to see before setting it by his feet, voice quiet, "You might want to... clean up a bit more before we hit the road."

Anna's eyes fell shut again, so Elsa gingerly slipped from the bed and stepped into Anna's private bathroom to scrub the blood from her arms, neck and shoulders. Her hands proved more difficult. It had been so thick that it would take weeks for the color to fade. She came back out for a second to grab her bag, stripping off the shredded remains of her clothes and putting on a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt. The redhead turned her head to watch Elsa as she pushed her feet into her backup sneakers and knelt to tie them.

The girl looked at the woman's face closely, tracing the four pale scars that ran from the right side of her face above her brow to her left jaw. God, Hans had hit her hard. Elsa was lucky to still have those deep, striking eyes that stupefied Anna every time.

"_Small miracles."_

She didn't want to think about what was coming, so she focused on Elsa while she secured the shoelace on one foot, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear before she moved to fix the other. Even doing something so ordinary, Elsa was- "Incredible," Anna breathed.

The woman looked up at her, and Anna tugged at Olaf's coat to make herself more comfortable. Elsa flashed that brilliant, **stunning** smile that took away the redhead's breath, standing and moving over to her, reaching out a hand to the girl. Anna reciprocated, and their palms met, fingers weaving together. "I'm not." She paused, swallowing hard, eyes looking a little glassy, "But you make me wanna be."

Anna felt a lump wedge in her throat and her own oculars grew misty. Those words weighed on her more heavily than any love confession or blackhearted lie. Her cheeks flushed, making her freckles stand out.

Elsa sighed almost imperceptibly. Anna looked beautiful.

They lingered for another minute or two, and Anna realized what had been so bitter sweet that morning when they lay naked in the hay.

This was what it was. Their hands parted, and Elsa waited for Anna to stand before moving for the door to the girl's room, picking up her rucksack and slinging it over her shoulder.

Anna watched the ground pass beneath her feet as she followed the blonde out onto the porch, Kristoff waiting at the bottom of the steps with Sven at his heels, a bookbag slung securely over his own shoulders.

They stopped on the deck, standing quietly for a moment before Elsa turned to face her.

Anna looked up from her sneakers directly into Elsa's eyes, shining pools of aqua glassy once more, "Please don't go."

Elsa smiled. It was small, it was tired, but it was real. It promised affection and trust. "If I could take back all the lies I told, I would."

"You don't have to go." Anna pleaded with a watery voice.

"Anna, I have to do this. Killing Hans didn't undo what I did to his life. And staying here won't undo what I did to yours."

Anna sobbed bitterly and angry tears streaked down her cheeks, "This isn't fair." She shook her head in fierce denial, messy hair tussling wildly, fists clenched at her sides.

The two missed the hiccup from Kristoff as he turned away from them and marched a ways out, to the end of Anna's driveway, swallowing the lump in his throat as he battled through both love and hate. He stood out there, blinking back tears, shoulders hunched, fists planted stubbornly on his hips waiting for his cousin. He knew what awaited Elsa when they returned, the answer to the question Anna had been afraid to ask. Sven sat silently beside him, leaning his head against the man's leg.

"You're right," she sighed, "It wasn't fair. None of this was fair to you." Elsa stepped in closer, reaching up to brush away one of the heavy drops escaping the girls eyes and cup the redheads cheek, "This is the only way to make it right."

The girl shook her head, "It isn't right." Elsa didn't take her meaning, though she seemed to think she did.

Elsa lowered her hand from Anna's cheek, holding her palm face up between them. Anna studied the hand extended to her for a moment before slipping her fingertips across the woman's palm until they kissed the heel of her hand. Her touch lingered lightly before she took hold of Elsa's hand, squeezing her palm and looking back into those striking blue eyes.

Elsa's eyes flashed golden, and she smiled one last time, squeezing back. And they stood there. Quiet. Then, Elsa slowly let go, turned, and walked away.

Anna's hand hovered in midair for a second before she let it drop, trying to remember the feeling of Elsa's warm and elegant fingers wrapped around her palm. She watched as Elsa stopped at the end of her driveway, patting Kristoff on the shoulder and smiling up at him. That stunning smile. Her cousin wiped angrily at his eyes with the back of his one hands. The redhead distantly heard Elsa's voice, "Don't be afraid, Kristoff. Even on your own, you'll be fine."

Her cousin smiled a regretful smile, mirthless. The blonde motioned with a nod of her head, and began to walk up the road. Kristoff followed close behind, and Sven after him.

Anna watched until long after they had disappeared beyond the horizon. After a while though, she bowed her head, turned, and walked back inside of her house, letting the door slam shut behind her.

Even if she got back to living life, it would never be the one she had before. It had been irrevocably changed.

* * *

A/N: That's the end. Will post the epilogue tomorrow.


	13. Epilogue

Disclaimer: Frozen is copyright to Disney

* * *

Anna had always heard that when you were about to die, your life would flash before your eyes. In the first instance that the beast had charged her after he'd carved into Elsa's face, she braced for the impact of that long, slow vision.

Instead, she had gotten a crystal clear image of Elsa's blood dripping in rivulets from Hans' claws, the very idea of what that now meant imprinting the sight on her brain, never to be let go. When he was flying through the air, the memories had surfaced. It wasn't her life. Instead, her mind rapidly sped through every instance that Elsa and Kristoff had seemed suspicious to her.

The moment they met in the general store.

The moment Elsa had said she would help, right after confessing that she was a monster.

The moment Elsa stomped Kristoff's foot to stop him from talking.

Every glance between the two, looking to one another to confer about where to let lies of omission slip by.

Vague and dodgy words like, _"Something like that,"_ and _"You're the one who's incredible."_

Standing inside entry of her house, the door closed behind her, Anna shrugged her shoulders to slide off Olaf's coat, letting it fall to the floor as she took a confident stride forward, then another, holding her head high as she strutted with conviction to the bathroom, the tears of Elsa's departure gone from her eyes. The limp in her gate was absent, no longer a factor of pain in her battered body. There were greater concerns at hand. She shut the door quietly once she entered her personal restroom, moving over to the mirror to check herself over.

Little flashes of Hans closing in on her.

Sighing, the girl shook her head, hands acting to pull her shirt off over her head and toss it to the floor, eyeing herself yet again. She was tired.

She could see it clearly now. The talons. The streams of red.

With a deep, cleansing breath, Anna reached behind her back to undo her bra, wincing and sucking her teeth when she brushed a tender spot. Allowing the fabric to drop the floor, Anna didn't look up yet, slowly turning her back to the mirror.

The redhead watched the wall for a few minutes, just breathing. Calm. Then she twisted a bit at the hips, and looked over her shoulder and into the glass. This had been why she'd stolen Olaf's coat. It hadn't been "chilly", and they both knew it. She'd had plenty of opportunities to tell Elsa, but she didn't. Instead, she hid it.

Her gaze fell to the four previously angry gashes that began at her lower back and streaked into fading pinpricks as they crawled toward the side of her ribcage.

Hans may not have been able to gut her, but as he plowed into her, bowling her over, he unwittingly got a sweeter revenge, one that would leave Anna forever effected. He had won from beyond the grave. Even had he infected her with his own blood, it just wouldn't have been quite as poetic.

Anna studied the already-healing scratches that would mark her by moonlight just as they had Hans. Closing her eyes and taking a last, deep breath, the redhead gradually drew her gaze up to stare at herself with remorse. The girl was lost.

Her eyes flickered gold when they locked with their reflection.

Anna really wished she could have convinced Elsa to stay.

* * *

A/N: Well, I didn't say that the epilogue would make you feel any better, now did I?

Disclaimer: These chapter titles are copyrighted ideas to their respective owners

Just a few notes. The titles of the chapters were references to horror and mystery classics, in case you didn't notice.

Chapters 1-3 refer to "the Adam's Family".

Chapter 4 is a reference to Lovecraft, as his heroes typically suffer some sort of insanity from the things they witness.

Chapter 5 &amp; 6 are a reference to Atticus Finch from "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Chapter 7 is (obviously) a reference to "Soylent Green" (it's people, you know; spoiler alert).

Chapter 8 &amp; 9 reference "Silence of the Lambs". The words are reversed, but fitting, as the consequence came before giving in to the "application of the lotion".

Chapter 10 refers to Se7en, and the line, "Become vengeance, David. Become Wrath."

Chapter 11 is taken from "Hannibal"- transcript of it follows.

**Hannibal Lecter: Given the chance, you would deny me my life, wouldn't you?**  
**Clarice Starling: Not your life.**  
**Hannibal Lecter: Just my freedom. _You'd take that from me._**

Hope you all enjoyed my spin on this classic genre.


	14. Notes to reviewers

Okay, I wanted to wait a day or so before coming back and addressing questions and reviews.

For starters, I know the ending is tragic in some sense; I tend to think of death when I hear tragedy (and our heroes made it out alive), but I guess Anna's fate could be considered worse than that. Some of you seemed to enjoy that, some of you don't, others don't seem to get it. I know not everyone can appreciate that kind of pain, irony, and tragedy, but it's the kind of story I love to write most. Five out of every six stories on here has a climax with a resolution that leaves you feeling happy inside. Life isn't always like that (you have to learn to live without getting the closure you desire, sometimes), and my storytelling tends not to be like that either. Sometimes you work really hard for something only to have it fall flat, and that's the case with Anna. She's gone through all this, and now she's forced to live with the consequences of her naivety.

Why is Anna remorseful? Those consequences she's forced to live with. Not only is she infected now, but because Elsa is determined to do "right" (due to Anna's influence), Anna feels like she can't take that away from Elsa, and will have to do "right" herself (face those consequences), on her own. It just would have been a lot easier having Elsa there, as somebody knowledgeable on it.

In terms of Elsa's fate (and note, Kristoff and Sven left with her to take her back home), you're not supposed to know because Anna doesn't know, but it is implied that she is facing possible execution. The caern is corrupt and a messed up place, but even knowing that their leaders lied to Elsa, if they were to execute her, she couldn't be a present danger to the outside world anymore, which she feels is the responsible thing to do.

Someone called my ending lazy: okay? That's really helpful. Why do you think it was lazy?

Last thing to address- a few people have asked if I'll write a short follow-up or a sequel. Short follow up? No.

You might get a sequel, however. It's been in the works for the last three weeks. Said sequel is due to have a happy ending, but then, my definition of a "happy" ending may not conform well to your traditional view of what one is. It seems to be longer than "By Moonlight", and has more characters, more lore, and a deeper plot. That being said, it may take me a while to finish it. Once it's complete and cleaned up, it will be posted here for those who want it.

Glad some of you enjoyed it. Sorry to those of you who didn't, I guess? I mean, the fuck do you want from me? I told you at the beginning of all this that my goal was to make you hate me, and I did, though some for different reasons than I meant. Ha.

On a final note, the mystery elements of this story are dedicated to my father, who passed away in November (2014). It was the man's favorite genre, and he was always very supportive of my writing, so I felt that I should stretch my metaphorical wings and try to touch on the subject in his memory. I hope I did well with it and that my commitment to finally finishing a work would make him proud.


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